The TriDad Life

Last Saturday, friends and family gathered in Lansing, MI, to honor the memory of my Grandmother. She lived for 87 years, and was a huge part of so many of our lives.

It was an honor to be asked by our family members to deliver her eulogy. I wanted to post the remarks here on the blog in her memory:

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Hi everyone. I was honored to be asked to say a few words in memory of this wonderful woman. To my brothers and I, she was Grandma Ann, and I know that she meant a great deal to many of you here in this room. She was a mother. A sister. An aunt. A friend.

It’s hard to encapsulate the life of someone that lived 87 years. As some of you were gracious enough to send me a few stories and thoughts about my Grandma Ann over the last few days, I wanted to spend this time to share with you some of the “greatest hits” to paint a picture of the colorful life she led, and the impact she made on us all.

Grandma Ann was a beautiful woman. I came on the scene in 1988, making her a Grandma for the first time at the age of 52. She had a whole life before that. I smile imagining her in her earlier days – a beautiful young woman lighting up the town, constantly repelling the advances of the would-be suitors of Twin Valley, Minnesota. Of course, we know what happened eventually. A young, handsome man named Jack Darrah swooped her off her feet, and the rest was history.

The truth is, I think we all know what Ann, or to those of you on the Minnesota side, Lenore, was all about. She simply loved to be with her family, and she shared the best of herself with us. For those of us that had the privilege of being on the receiving end of her love, we benefited from experiencing some of the special characteristics that made Ann, Ann..Or Lenore, Lenore.

For one thing, the woman really could cook. I don’t think we could begin to try to count the number of holidays and family get togethers that featured something delicious from her kitchen. My personal favorite of course was her mashed potatoes – I’m certain I share that with some of you.

More than just the food on the table, it was simply a joy to be in her company. She had a beautiful voice and loved to sing and play the piano. I can think of so many Christmas’s where she played and sang and made us all feel so warm.

She had an easy sense of humor, and of course, how about that infectious laugh? I think in the all-time history of laughs, Grandma Ann had one of the best. And once you got her going, there was no stopping the train. I know for sure this is not just something that she picked up when she moved to Michigan. The cousins shared with me that one of the staples of those trips to Minnesota was loud cackling of Grace and Lenore laughing uncontrollably. I can almost hear it in my mind even today.

My brothers and I were especially blessed to be Lenore’s grandsons, and I think it was pretty obvious that she took the role of Grandma very seriously. Grandma Ann was a constant throughout our childhood. We loved it when Grandma would watch us when my parents were out. As Kent pointed out to me, she basically let us do anything we wanted. She took great care to make sure we felt special when we visited Lansing, letting us know to go to the treat box to find something new and delicious.

As we got older, and so did she, she never wavered in her commitment to us. In my college years in Lansing, she and grandpa frequently opened their home to me and my friends. We ate and laughed for hours, and the visits always seemed to end too soon, so we kept coming back over and over again.

She certainly loved to follow her grandsons’ many sports activities. It was always a joy for me to drive her and grandpa from Lansing to Frankenmuth to watch Brad, and then Kent, play basketball. We enjoyed a few olive burgers on the way, too.

She never missed a birthday. Every year, she’d call us to sing Happy Birthday in her lovely voice. What I loved most is how she would close with an “I Looovee Yoouuu.” That’s just pretty special, something that I can have in my memory forever to think of her.

When I think about Grandma now that she’s passed, I’m sad to know that all of these things are memories, and that we can’t make any more with her. But I also feel comfort, knowing that she left behind the greatest gift of them all – the knowledge that through her faith, which she made well known, she is now living the fullest life imaginable in the greatest place there is.

Some of the last words she heard on this earth were from Romans chapter 6, verse 23: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Like us all, Grandma Ann was not perfect, but through her faith in Jesus, she has now been made perfect. Let us rejoice in knowing that she is at peace alongside Grandpa Jack, and in knowing that someday, we will see her again. For now, we can always hang on to that laugh, and all those beautiful moments we had with Ann Lenore.