My Grandma Jody

This is one of my very favorite photos of me, Grandma Jody and my brother Chris.

My Grandma Jody died this Sunday. The funeral is tomorrow. Jody meant so much to me. As a kid she was my stable in an unstable world. My brother Chris and I spent the weekend with her almost every weekend. We would go to her house on Friday night and leave sometime late Sunday afternoon. When I was at her house I felt safe and there seemed to be magic every where in the every day things. I'm working on capturing in writing all the things that I loved about my Grandma. I thought I might share a few of my special memories on here as I find time to write them.



Party at night . In the evenings when we spent the night we would watch tv together. At some point Jody would say, “Is it time for a party?” We would cheer and make our way to the kitchen. We would just have a snack but she called it a party and so it felt like a party. We were delighted when she said those magic words. When we got to the kitchen we could have anything we wanted but here’s a few of the things that we usually had: donuts that we had previously picked out for the party, cereal, cheese and crackers, pimento cheese (my brother only) or a sandwich. We would eat our snack and chat. It was one of my most favorite things when I was a kid. Having a party on a Friday night for no reason at all made me very happy. We did it almost every weekend but I never came to expect it. I was always taken by surprise when she would call out, “Is it time for a party?”

Red chair that sat by the stove. Jody had a tall red bar stool that sat in between her enormous movable dishwasher and the stove. It was silver with cherry red vinyl coverings. It was my favorite seat in the house. Sometimes Chris would beg to sit in it, but it was usually mine. I liked sitting there and watching her cook. I would also sit there during our Party time. I liked how the seat always felt cold when I sat down. Also, I liked how tall it was so I could see everything that was going on. How I would love to sit in that red chair one more time and watch my grandma cook.

Donut shopping. We used to have a Dunkin Donuts here. It was on North First. Sometimes we would go over there on Friday evenings and we would get to go “Donut Shopping” I don’t know when we started calling it that but it was great fun. She would get a dozen donuts and we were able to shop and pick out one donut. The one I picked out the most was a pink covered donut. She loved the blueberry cake donuts. I can still smell that place if I think about it. In my own personal memory it reminded me of a train car. It was a rectangular building with a long counter that had bar stools under it. There were donuts on the shelves and a glass case at the bottom where I would usually look for my donuts. Also, that place had donut holes which I thought was the best, but I usually only got those from my Mom.

So far that's all I've got. I'll be working on more Grandma Jody memories as I have the time. There's no way for me to fully explain how this beautiful woman changed my life and how much I deeply love her. I'm not sure how I will be able to say goodbye to her tomorrow. I know she was one of Jesus' favorites.