maude and claude, or gramma and gampa

My parents both died within a year, daddy in January 07, and mommy in July 06. They weren't just regular parents, with their own lives, they loved us kids and knew every detail they could about us. We called them Grampa and Gramma, because with 7 children and 40something grandchildren, what else would we call them? Gramma was wonderful. She knew every grandkid's b'day, what they liked, what time they were born. She used to stay overnight here alot when she was healthier, she would sit in the chair with kids on both arms and one on her lap and read to them. Her favorite story was "Tearwater Tea", in which Owl thinks of sad things, cries into the teapot, and voila, tearwater tea...but she got everything mixed up. When something sad happened, she would say, "That's owl water soup." She was on kidney dialysis for 9 years. She had breast cancer in both breasts, and wore washcloths in her bra, which believe me, I could tell some funny ones...She always got a kick out of when one of the kids noticed this. She had a few heart attacks, triple bypass surgery, several heart catheter procedures, etc. But she never complained. She did talk about her health, made friends with every dr. or nurse she ever met.....She chose to quit dialysis last July and go home to Jesus, because her heart was failing. She checked into hospice at the hospital on a Monday, and died on Friday morning. There were sometimes 20 or 30 people in her room. Each new visitor was greeted with a variation of , " I am dying to see you." Death was not a scary thing for Gramma, she knew she belonged to God , and she did not waver in her belief that she would go home to Him. She laughed and smiled, joked, and said her goodbyes. She stayed conscious until her last nap. It was a desperately sad but blessed week.
Grampa was desolate without her, and had leukemia. He tried so hard to stay away from germs, he was a mental case about it. His blood stopped clotting properly, and he spent his last week of life getting more blood daily. He died of a massive stroke on Saturday afternoon. We had to turn off the life support. He just wasn't going to make it. For the record, his temperature went up to 107.8 before he passed. He loved keeping track of things, he would have repeated that statistic to everyone. He bought us groceries. After Gramma passed, he went shopping crazy: his house was filled with papertowels, t.paper, cannned goods, ect....we never went home empty handed when visiting him. Anyway, at the end of some of my blogs from now on, I will have a "What I would like to tell Gramma and/or Grampa" section. I miss them so much. I used to talk to them every day.....