Memories from the Forgetful

I've mentioned my Grandma Alice more than once today. I just keep thinking about her sweet little face and voice. Sometimes I joke on here about having a bad memory, the truth is in some ways I am a little bit afraid of my bad memory. My Grandma had Alzheimer's Disease and Dimentia for the last 6 or so years. It came on fairly slowly, but I am sure if we looked back we could catch some of the signs leading up to her going to the "dungeon" as she would call it AKA the nursing home.

She was so funny all the time and sweet to boot! She had 6 children and (I lost track maybe) 27 Grandchildren and only Jesus knows how many great-grandchildren and I think we all felt extra loved by her. She would whisper in our ears things like:
"Don't tell anyone I said this, but you're the best one."
"I love you the most, shhhhhh."
"You are my sweet little Manderea" -That was probably only to me.

She also would say/do very funny things. We had something called Girl's Night and eventually it wasn't just girls the boys joined in too! We would get together every week and we would play "dice" and Grandma would cook for us. We would laugh at all the cute and funny things Grandma would say. She would roll the dice and say, "Gooooo Me!" (I'm just smiling, thinking about how much fun we had.)

One time on Girl's Night we went over and Grandma took us outside to show us her garbage can. She had decided to burn all of her bills and receipts and other things normal people would throw away or shred. She forgot one important thing, plastic garbage cans probably won't work the same way as her metal cans. There was her can, bended and melted, and there was Grandma looking just as defeated as her trash can. We all smiled and then giggled and then laughed until we cried, including Grandma.

The FIRST Girl's Night Grandma sat around telling us love stories about her and Grandpa. The LAST Girl's Night we had, we were sitting around telling Grandma love stories about her and Grandpa. I miss her dearly. The laughs and the whispers in our ears (And I think Ryan got licked on the ear once, too.) The sitting around telling stories and her expired candy and cheese. Her sweet giggles and her bracelets bangling. Even singing to her in her last few days with our family by her side and her faint voice while trying to sing along. I miss those things, a lot.