Grandma Sloan

My Grandma Sloan is my hero.  Although she grew up in the sticks, so poor she had to brush her teeth with a washcloth and salt that she shared with her eight siblings, she grew up to lead a very interesting and fascinating life.  I can’t imagine what it must have been like to live through all the things she did and all the changes this world made.

My grandma had a stiff hip due to an accident in her childhood that resulted in a bone disease.  It caused her pain and she was forced to walk very slowly, but she never complained and she never let it keep her from doing anything.

My whole life my grandmother was where the action was.  Helping me to build snowmen just as the sun was rising because I was so excited about the first snow.  Coming to Disney World and taking me to Six Flags.  She never missed a shopping trip, an afternoon matinee, or a day at the park.  She wouldn’t skip an afternoon at the maize maze or any one of my cousins’ sporting events. 

She could do anything.  She was the uber-homemaker who worked full time, including night shifts, so my mom and Aunt Vicky could have more opportunities.  She could knit, crochet, cook, bake, paint, sew, cross stitch, quilt, scrapbook, and more.  I can only hope to someday master one of these arts.  She had them all down pat. In the past year or so, she even got herself an email address so we could keep in touch that way.

Because she was my grandma, she used her many talents to do wonderful things for me.  Sewing matching Easter dresses for me and Cottontail, scrapbooking my entire life into beautiful, tangible memories, repairing many pairs of favorite jeans, extending their life another year, and making me quilts.  My favorite one is made of scraps of dresses that were worn by my mom, Aunt Vicky, cousins and me.  It’s a family history, and it keeps me warm.

Attending her funeral, I realized she did many of these wonderful things for all those she knew.  Everyone had a story about how my grandmother had made their wedding cake or sewed a new body for a much-loved stuffed lamb or made a special Halloween costume.  How did she have the time?  And in addition, she cooked and cooked for the church, spearheaded outreach projects and made time for book clubs.

Someday, I hope to accomplish half of what she did in her lifetime, but I think even that is a lofty goal.  Grandma Sloan was the best.  Cottontail likes say she was the bomb.  And she is truly missed.