About my Grandmother

Well, where do I begin. My brothers and I have had a tuff summer. My other grandmother passed away this past weekend. We have laid to rest all of the grandparents we knew. My grandfather on my Mom's side passed away before any of his grandchildren were born. Man I wish I would have met him. I wish I could sit down and listen to stories about my mom, aunts and uncle. But my grandmother is with him and my two aunts now. One day I will see them all again and get that chance to speak with my grandfather.
We called this grandmother Memaw as well (thanks to my older brother). Memaw was a wonderful grandmother. I remember always spending the night at her house when we were kids. Always great food and plenty of ice cream for desert. Memaw always loved having her grandchildren around. Many times it wouldn't just be me and my brothers but our cousins too. We all grew up like brothers. She had a great climbing tree in her back yard. When she would drive us to places she was always playing classical music in her car. She would wave her hand back and forth like she was conducting the orchestra. Back then we always use to make fun of how she did it. She never cared she just loved the music. Now remembering how she use to do it, it brings a smile to my face. Memaw use to come to soccer games, choir concerts or anything else we had going on. She would always be there in the seats support us. Holidays and get togethers were always a blast at her house. First there was always enough food to serve a small army and she always reminded us of that. Heck there were always so many people there that we probably could have invaded a small country. At Christmas she always had a cool tree. She had some very old ornaments and from what I have been told some of them from WWII era. I always thought those were the coolest. There was always a stocking for everyone there. And with the size of our family just imagine about 100 stockings by the fireplace. She always gave each of us a mushy birthday card about how we were the best grandchild in the world. I can tell my brothers and cousins now that she liked me the most but I swore never to tell anyone. Just kidding. She loved all of her grandchildren dearly. The first thing anyone had to do no matter how old you were was when you walked through the door you had to go give Memaw a kiss hello. And when you left you better give her a kiss good-bye. You don't want to mess with an Irish hex.
She always talked about Ireland and talked about going back to Oregon. But I think her most favorite place was Galveston, TX. Every year my family would rent a beach house in Galveston for a week. She loved to sit on the front porch facing the water and read and relax in the breeze. She would watch us play in the sand, go swimming and fishing in the surf. She would come down and swim with us and she would float on her back in the water while singing some of the most funny songs any young kid could imagine. And of course my mom, aunts, and uncle taught us a few gross ones of course. You all know what I am talking about....Great Green Globs.....Worms crawl in... you know the ones and are probably singing them to yourself now.....and now are laughing at yourself because you know I caught you doing it. Anyway we (brothers, cousins, uncle) would get up bright and early to go fishing out in the surf. We knew that once the sun came up we could always look back at the house and there Memaw would be on the porch reading her book and enjoying her morning coffee. She would always ask as we walked back under the house if we caught anything and was so excited when we did. That meant she got some fresh trout for lunch or dinner. When we would be arriving at Galveston and we would get the first sight of the Gulf she would always say "There's the Big Water!!!" Good times.
When I was able to drive and as she got older she use to ask me to come over and do some things around the house. Mostly gardening work. At her old house on Hazen she had a few rose bushes. I soon learned when the proper time to cut them back and feed them (Valentines day) and how to cut the flowers so that the plant would put out more. I always would like to think of myself as her "Rose Man". This is where I gained my love for roses. Memaw had some beautiful roses and loved to cut them and put them in the house. Every time I saw one in the house I knew I had a hand in it and knew that it made her happy.
My grandmother always talked highly about my parents. Even as a teenager when I thought they were totally unfair/not cool she would always remind me of how great my parents were. She would always say that my dad was a very good husband, my mom was a very good wife, and how they were excellent parents to me and my brothers. She was 100% right. She raised my mom, aunts and uncle to be great people and my other grandparents raised my dad, aunts, and uncle to be great too.
I would have to say that on both sides of my family I have had the greatest mom, dad, brothers, aunts, uncles, and cousins any child could ever wish for.
I know that if I can be just half as good as my parents and grandparents are/were then my kids and grandchildren are going to be just fine.

I could go on and on about my grandparents but will save that for another time and place.

Memaw, we love and miss you. Say hi to Grandpa Flanagan, Memaw and Bepaw Morgan, Geeg, and Nanie for us.

Love
Tom and all of your grandchildren