A goodbye (for now) to Grandma Christensen

I had been working on a post that was fairly whiny and boring the other day about how I am going to quit my job at the hospital and how much of a pain it is to find your own insurance and how much I love my cleaning business and so on and so forth.  I was all set to finish it at work this weekend and then something very sad and very unexpected happened.  Friday evening, my grandmother passed away.  The one that was married to the grandpa that passed away in May.  It was time for them to be together again.  It seemed to happen very quickly, as we had just seen her on the Sunday before and she seemed very happy and able to get around and I wouldn't not have suspected for one second that she wouldn't be around the very next week, which is why I think that truly she is gone because Grandpa just needed her.  She will be missed immensely.  I'm sure most people think their Grandma's are the nicest, sweetest people ever, but mine may really have been.  THE nicest and sweetest.  I wish that Willa had had more time with her Great Grandparents, but I do think that she will have memories of them.  One day, she and I were chatting about ways to keep yourself healthy and strong and I said something about living a long life if you kept yourself healthy.  She pointed out that Great Grandpa lived to be very old and I said yes, that he kept himself very healthy and she said "No, Great Grandma did that for him."  She really summed it up well.  My Grandma was the ultimate caregiver, the epitome of selfless giving.

It has been a tough year for those of us that are left of the Christensen family, and we all miss Uncle Bob, Grandpa and Grandma very much.  I am a person of great faith, but the concept of heaven is very hard for me to grasp.  I think it is just too huge.  Too unknown.  Until now, as I can picture my Grandparents there and I know just what they are doing and how they will welcome me someday.  We will hug and kiss, we will play cards and have freshly squeezed orange juice.  Grandpa will mow his lawn and later we will check out the horse races.  Then, on an especially heavenly evening, there will be a big party with a band and dancing and drinks and love and everything will be right with the world again.  Until then...