Grandma Luella

My last grandparent, Luella Pritchard (my mom's mom), passed away this morning at the age of 92. Grandma Luella went into the hospital ICU in Park Rapids the day after Maya was born and has been there ever since. Mom says that she passed away this morning at 9:15 while my Uncle Gary was in the room with her reading to her from the book of Psalms. She wasn't in any pain.

I haven't seen Grandma Luella for several years and neither Brian nor Maya ever got to meet her. She had a tough life and the past few years have been a challenge for her health-wise. Despite not spending much time with her, I do have a few good memories of her from visits to Minnesota when I was a kid. I remember her cutting up fresh strawberries she picked from her garden, tossing them with sugar in a used ice cream bucket, and serving them with vanilla ice cream. I remember her playing hymns on the organ and the harmonica. I remember her paintings of loons and farm landscapes painted on sawblades. I remember how she always sent me a pack of Trident gum in birthday cards (because it was flat and fit in the envelope). I remember her coming to visit in Hawaii with some of her sisters and how I rode around in the trunk of the station wagon (remember those days before seatbelts and carseats!!). I remember visiting her in the nursing home when I was in Minnesota for a conference in graduate school--she remembered that I liked rhubarb crisp and made sure there was some there for me.

Hopefully we will be able to make it up for the funeral next week.