My sweet Grandma.....

At the temple in June


April 2008


Today is a sad day for my family. My dear sweet Grandma passed away in the early hours of the morning. We new her days here with us were numbered. I was planning to go say goodbye after school today. Oh I wish I would have gone last night! My grandma was one of the sweetest people in the world. My life has been greatly blessed by her! I went to Logan with Katie last week to see her. All I could do was just sit there and cry while she held my hand and stroked my hair. She just kept telling me how beautiful I was and how much she loved me. At one point she commented on how dry my hands were and that I should take better care of them. She told me to go get some cream so she could rub it on my hands for me. See, that is what kind of woman she was, always caring for the ones she loved. This summer when I went to the temple, my Grandma walked in wearing the same dress. She excitedly sat down by me and said I am so glad that we are finally twins. It was so cute! I remember thinking at one point while sitting there that that would be the only time I would probably be there with her. I am so thankful to have had that experience with her.

When I was in the fourth grade I did a report about my Grandma Clark. She wrote a brief history of her life for me. Last May I found it while going through some of my old stuff. I will cherish it always! She wrote about how the day she was born how her father was working on the Boulder Dam in Nevada so her mother was staying with her parents. She was born on March 14th when the weather was usually warm but how that year it was snowy and the roads were closed. Her Grandfather pulled her mother in a horse drawn sleigh to the main junction where her uncle Dick met them with the car to drive her mother to the hospital. Soon after that they went to live with her father. Their house was on stilts and she could remember that they had large turtles that lived under the porch and she and her sister, Glenna, would ride them.

She wrote about how her mother said she could swim before she could walk! Now I know I must have inherited my love of the water from my sweet Grandmother. She wrote about marrying my Grandpa and how much she loved being a wife and mother. She loved sports, working in her yard, cooking and quilting. She shared some of her favorite memories of my Dad. How he loved to work with his father and Grandfather. She said my Dad was a great example for the rest of his family, he was a good athlete, dedicated worker, always kept his word, and that he always respected other people. I am so thankful to Grandma and Grandpa for raising my Dad to have all these qualities! They are things that I admire about him and learned from him as well.

A few years ago Katie and I went to a bridal shower for one of my cousins at my Grandma's house. We got there early and my Grandma told me about how she and her cousin snuck out one night and took the car out so she could learn to drive! It was so funny to hear her tell the story and know that once she was doing the same type of things I myself did as a teenager. Just one last thing......... My Grandma has the biggest sweet tooth of anyone I know! I get that from her too, I guess. She would always be prepared with an ice cold pepsi and piece of chocolate from her secret stash. She would grab me a can and then I would wait while she would go to her secret hiding place for her box of Sees chocolates and then I would get to pick ONE, and just one! But she really did know that sometimes that cold pepsi and chocolate could really make you feel a little better. Tomorrow I will stop to get a box of chocolates, and drink a Pepsi in memory of her.