Remembering Dee

It's been a week since we lost Dustin's grandma and I've thought of her often. I didn't see an obituary online so I made my own in typical me fashion, as a video, as a blog post. She was like a 4th grandmother to me (I know, how lucky am I to have had 4 when most people get 2, if that?!).  She was so accepting of me into the family long before we ever even met and continued to treat me that way until the end. She cared for Dustin something fierce. You can see it in the photos below but I know it to be true from the memories and stories he shares with me. I saw it first hand for the past 15 years. 

I will remember that she and I shared the love of the color purple and taking photos. I loved flipping through all of her big old school photo albums smiling and laughing at the same ones like it was the first time I had seen them. She loved movies and always had a stack of newly released DVDs next to her chair in the living room ready to watch. I'm talking Tom Cruise or Fast and the Furious kind of action. I'll miss sitting at the table in the middle of the kitchen listening to her and Dustin talk about the past. She was feisty and didn't take shit from anyone. She was hilarious a lot of times without even meaning to be. She was so incredibly talented with ceramics. She had a whole shop in her basement and would be delighted every time I asked to go down and paint something (which was literally every time we visited). My favorite ceramic is a skull that sits on my desk as I type this. I was just going to paint it one color but she taught me a technique to make it look dimensional and aged. She always wanted to take us all out for family dinners whether she was down in Florida or we were up there. She was easy going and let us come and go as we pleased during our visits. She always wanted to know how Cheeto and Olive were doing. She once thought email was delivered at the same time each day much like regular snail mail and I'll never stop thinking how hilarious and cute that is. She was so extremely giving. Dustin and I both share the fact that our childhoods would've been so much different had we not had our grandparents. I  know he is forever grateful for all that they gave to him from the stuff to the experiences to a home base amidst all the moves.

Thank you for the memories.
Thank you for the laughs.
Thank you for always treating me like one of your own.