Early this morning, my Mamal went to heaven to be with lots of family members that are already there. She was 92 years old. I am so glad that I went to see her for her birthday in October. She was a neat lady who went through a lot in this life - good and bad. While I was growing up in California, she lived in upstate New York, so we didn't see each other a whole lot and it was the days before "Skype" and "FaceTime". We wrote letters and my mom would wait and call occasionally after 9 p.m. when the rates were lower, of course. There were visits though, she would come out and we would go to Disneyland and Busch Gardens. We were always so excited for her to unpack her suitcase, since she would generally have a little something in there for us.
One year, we flew to New York, then got in the car and drove to West Virginia for a family reunion. Mamal sat in the back with us 3 girls (wide old car, no seat belts) and told us stories the whole way there, we made her tell the turtle story over and over again, we loved it! When we were at her house, in New York, she baked us our favorite pies and ate our vegetables for us too! She did ask my mom not to give us quite so many though. She had an old claw footed tub and the only shower she had was in her scary basement.
When I was married and she would come to California, she would come out to my house to see me and my family and she would do some little thing, like clean my toaster all sparkly! It has never been as clean before or since.
Here is a picture of 5 generations, with her on the right in Arizona a few years back. She came out to live with my Aunt Linda in Arizona for the past few years as she needed more care. Aunt Linda and her wonderful family took great care of her and we are all grateful. Today I am grateful for my family and the love, because even as we are all struggling along doing the best that we can, we all love each other A LOT!
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