My Gran was there at the beginning of my life and I'm glad I was there at the end of hers. I visited on her last day in the hospital and she held my hand. I will never forget it, even though I'm realistic that it was a side effect of the meds. I'm just so grateful for the couple months we had while she was still in good health, and that she got to see me return to Manitoba and was proud of me. I brought her to the farm on Mother's Day and showed her our house and my rabbits and the property, she thought it a fine place for us to be!
A tradition for me and Gran and Grandpa Tom was wildflowers. Most times I visited Gran I brought flowers, replacing the ones I had brought the time before so she always had fresh blooms in her apartment at Riverheights Terrace in Brandon. The early blooms were salvia, then iries, then wild ladyslippers (which she loved the best!), and finally wild tiger lilies, which had a special significance to me because of Grandpa Tom. Jon and I visited together often, and would regale Gran with stories of what we were doing on the farm. She laughed at my love of chickens and told me stories from the farm and her personal hatred of chickens! She shared stories I had never heard before about the farm. When I was a kid, I ADORED Gran and Grandpa, and spent as much time as my parents would allow at the farm, which was nearly every second weekend for quite a while. From them I learned a love of homesteading as Gran and I pushed wet clothes through the wringer washer, shelled peas, picked tomatoes, hauled pails of drinking water from the pump, chased frogs, enumerated bluebirds, identified birds and trees and flowers, drove the grain truck in harvest season, made crafts, baked cookies, read books-- all those Grandma sorts of things. She made every visit memorable and time seemed to move more slowly on the farm, which was counter-intuitive to my young self who was having such a good time! The saying "time flies when you're having fun" is less applicable than the simple fact that Gran and I always made the most of our time and thoroughly enjoyed every moment together. I was never bored there and I learned to observe nature, love plants, and take time for the important things.
After Gran passed away, I got one of her books. It was called "Nature Notes", and was a calendar to be filled in from year to year with visitors and observations from nature. I can now look back and see when the robins arrived from year to year, remember visits that she noted, and high and low temperature records. I bought myself a nice book and have begun recording my own observations in it, in Gran's honor, and so that someday my own granddaughter may look back on my life.
Gran loved her roses, and I plan to plant one in her honor this year. I am so glad that we made it back in time for her to see our return and know that we would carry on the family farm here in Manitoba. I feel like this is what Gran and Grandpa Tom would have wanted most for me.
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