My Grandma

This is me, my grandmother (on my dad's side), my nephew, and my brother. This picture is nearly 6 years old (based on the fact that my nephew is now almost six and a half). 

My grandmother died this evening, at around 5:25. Peacefully, I am told. 

When I was a kid, my family visited her and my grandfather quite a lot. We only lived 2 or 3 hours away, in Michigan. I remember lots of berry picking, pie and cookie baking, swimming, and wintery things like sledding. They lived in a very cool octagon-shaped house that my grandfather built, in a pretty wilderness-y area of Michigan with lots of lakes around. It was a great place for me, my brother, and our three cousins to get to spend vacations.

My grandmother stayed with me while my parents were at the hospital when my brother was being born. I always associate her with warmth and old-fashioned nurturing. 

When I was 7, my family moved many many hours drive away, and I was never really close with her again (or any of the northern branch of my family that I had spent my formative years around, really). I've seen her maybe half a dozen times in the years since then. I've kept track of her through my father, and I assume she heard about the major highlights of my life the same way. I sent a Christmas card every year, just to remind her that I still thought of her and loved her, even though we weren't really in touch any more.

I still do think of her and love her. 

Happy ascension, Helen Josephine Nevill Capper
November 10, 1925 - October 11, 2011