Sophia Marie

Grandma and Grandpa with my baby niece...and me looking smug as a 5-year-old. We lost my Grandma this week, but heaven gained a heck of a jig saw puzzler and gin rummy player. She stays up late, too, so don't think you can wear her out and put the last piece in. She'll probably be smoking Virginia Slim Menthols ...at least I think I remember that being the brand. (Hey, she was 94 and I figure if you're 94 you can smoke as much as you want). There was always one missing piece we'd look for after the puzzle was all together, and the brown carpet in the dining room didn't help our search any. We usually found it, though. I was never much of a jigsaw puzzle fan, so I would comb through Grandma's cassette tape and record collection and play whatever struck my fancy. There was a lot of polka. She really liked Alan Jackson and Garth Brooks. I got told more than once that maybe it was time to play something other than "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer"...in July. It was at Grandma's house that I found a Rosanne Cash tape - "King's Record Shop." It's still one of my favorite albums to this day. I even borrowed it for the 10 hour trip home from Kansas to Albuquerque to listen to it on my Walkman (hey, I was 12) and to copy it (ah the days before Napster) and mail it back. She lived in Kansas for most of my childhood, and there were always people around, dropping in to eat lunch or work on the puzzle or watch her cuss at the squirrels that were chasing away the birds from the feeder outside the window. She loved bird-watching and there was usually a bird book laying around to identify the various species that passed through Rush Center. She grew up in the Midwest during the Great Depression and remembers having to shovel out the dirt that blew in the house during the Dust Bowl. She raised 8 kids on a farm and my mom says they never knew they were poor...somehow a family of 10 and countless cousins and visitors got fed at every meal whether there seemed to be enough to go around or not. There always was. When you visited, there was always a cake or a pie on the table when you got to her house, whether you had driven all night or all day to get there. She had an awesome cream puff recipe. I'd like to think my sense of snark and good times was passed on from my grandma to my mom to me and my siblings...we're a funny bunch. A few years ago Grandma moved into an assisted living home where she had her own room and still lived independently but had to abide by a few "house rules" including "No Smoking." I remember we were walking back to her room and she motions to my mom to come closer and whispers to her..."Can you hide a cigarette in the bathroom for me?" I think she wanted mom to stash one in the potpourri holder or something. Mom, of course, did not comply, but it had us in stitches...and hey. It was a good idea! So those of us who won't see her for a while are a little bummed, but you can't be too sad about a long life with lots of family and a legacy like Grandma's to show for it. May we all be as blessed and live such full lives.