Gramma Ruthie

My gramma was an amazing woman. She was beautiful, intelligent, strong, organized, loving, generous, and an amazing cook & baker with a great sense of humor :) If little Violet gets even a smidgen of her great gramma in her, I'll be the happiest mama on earth :)

As some of you know, gramma passed away the month before Violet was born... At first, I felt really cheated... For all of us really... Gramma would never get to meet her first great grandchild... And my baby girl would never get to smile at her gramma Ruthie, be cuddled in her arms, or have gramma read her books like 'A Wrinkle In Time' or 'The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe'. It was really hard to stomach ALL of the things V would miss (it STILL is)... But I came to feel and believe that Violets birth came at the perfect time. With the ending of gramma's perfect story starts the beginning of my baby's beautiful story.

Violet has experienced SO many 'firsts' on this trip. Today we hit another first: V's first hike :) She traveled with 18 other family members up the base of the Ko'olau mountains to spread gramma Ruthie's ashes (the main reason we made this trip). Gramma wanted to be scattered there because you can see the entire Ko'olau mountains from their house and she wanted gramps to be able to look up and see her every day. It was a wonderful and memorable experience. I can't wait to tell her about it and show her pictures when she gets older.

It's been so nice to talk story and remember all the wonderful things about gramma... But I can't help feeling sad and every story makes me miss her. Being here without her is strange and really hard to get used to, but I know she's in an amazing place... Dancing and smiling down at us (& probably organizing God's records - she was sooooo good at that) :)