Saying Goodbye to a Grandparent

It's difficult to express how the death of my grandmother has effected me. There is the loss of a loved one and the memories that she takes with her, both the ones she can no longer share and the ones that we, as her family, have of her.

As a kid, growing up in the 60's, I remember spending time on the farm where my grandparents lived. It was a self-sufficient family farm, one where the crops that were grown went to feed the livestock. In those days these farms supplied milk, eggs and chickens to the surrounding community and small towns, before mass distribution and Super Markets had become the norm. There's not much of that today except maybe among the Amish.

My favorite times on that farm were playing in the hay loft of the barn or in the corn crib. My cousins lived close by my grandparents, so the four of us had a lot of fun using the farm as our playground. I can also remember Grandma giving the kids a treat by putting m&m's in the tin lids from a glass jar. Somehow m&m's just don't taste the same today.

Here's one of my favorite pictures of my Grandparents with all of their grandchildren. That's me on the far left, then my Grandmother, Verla Bryan, with my sister Laura in her lap. In the middle is my cousin Jeff, then cousin David in the lap of my Grandfather, Dale Bryan. I'm not sure of the exact date, probably around 1963-64.