One Of My Most Favorite People!

 One of my most favorite memories was my Granny Ruth.  I didn't really know any of my other grandparents so I was very close to my Granny.  I can remember taking trips to her house in Jones, Oklahoma like it was yesterday.  I always loved going to her house and I always knew we were close when we would pass the cemetery not too far from where she lived.  Us kids would always scramble to find our shoes once we saw the cemetery.  We would always kick our shoes off before we left our driveway because we knew it was a pretty long trip and we wanted to be comfortable.  I can remember one summer I went by myself to spend time with her.  She had this big washtub that we would put well water in and I would swim in it.  The washtub wasn't really big enough for me to swim, but I had a blast anyway.  I use to help her hang laundry on the clothes lines (you know, the old fashion way)  I never understood why she had a dryer when she very rarely used it.  It seemed she rather hang them outside to dry.  Granny was always in the kitchen cooking.  She started early in the morning, usually before the sun was up.  She would spend hours cooking breakfast, we would set the table, and it only took a few minutes to devour the yummy food.  We would help clean up after breakfast then she would start right in to preparing for lunch.  Then we would set the table, eat, and clean up.  Then again she would go right in to preparing for dinner.  We would repeat the process with dinner.  After clean up it was ICE CREAM time!!  My Granny's favorite food was ice cream.  You could always count on her having some and she would always have magic shell to go on the top of it.  After ice cream we would usually play games.  Card games or pass the pig, were the games we mostly played.  I loved playing pass the pig.  It was easy for me to play since I was pretty little and didn't really understand the card games.  When I wasn't playing that I was usually playing hungry hungry hippo, another of my favorite games.  After we were done playing games it was bed time.  I always slept with my Granny. We always said our goodnight prayers, she would kiss me on the forehead, and she would always tell me how much she loved me, then we would go fast asleep.  My time with her was always special to me.  Around Christmas time, I could always count on new socks and underwear from her!  I have to admit, as a child, that wasn't too exciting, but I never let her know it was disappointing that I never got any toys.  Now that I am an adult with kids of my own, I sure wish Granny was around buying me new socks and underwear!  I can remember going to the post office every day while I was visiting.  Everyone knew my name and thought I was just the cutest little girl ever. I loved riding along with her running errands with her.  We would go to the hair salon too.  We always went to Church too.  I can close my eyes and still picture running around with her and her house, the smell and everything in it is still a memory fresh in my mind.  She had this huge tree in her front yard that we would always climb, we also had a tire swing we loved to play on.  Life was so much simpler back then.  All we needed was a few board games, a tree to climb, a tire to swing on, and a washtub to swim in.  We were never bored, yet that's all we had to do!  I was very sad the day they had to cut that old tree down.  Granny's house just wasn't the same with out it.  As I got older, so did she.  I can remember one of the last times I went to her house after Chris and I started dating.  We stayed with her and then we went to Frontier City the next day. After we got married and had our first child my Granny started having mini strokes and it got to where she couldn't take care of herself.  So my mom and dad moved her to Enid to live with them so they could care for her properly.  Granny was still able to do allot herself, she just needed supervision.  She was always a very strong woman.  She raised 2 rambunctious boys all by herself!  Her having to depend on someone else to help care for her sometimes didn't set well with her, until she just couldn't do it any longer.  While I worked, she would rock my babies all day long!  I left them in her arms when I went to work and when I picked them up they were in her arms.  I blame her for them being so spoiled.  Ahhh, how she loved babies!  I never had to teach my older two kids their ABCs and 123s, or how to tie their shoes,  because Granny already did it!  She read to them constantly (and fed them ice cream)!  When I got pregnant with my 3rd baby, Granny was so excited.  It had been a good 5 years since we had a baby around the house, so her arms were hurting, she needed to hold and rock another baby.  During my months of pregnancy Granny went down hill fast.  I would go to my parent's house and get her and take her to my house to play with the kids and visit with me because I wasn't working at that time.  Pretty soon, she was so bad I couldn't do that anymore.  She had to stay in bed most of the time.  All she talked about was being able to hold my sweet baby boy.  I would smile and say you will get to hold him soon.  She would smile and say "I can't wait to rock him"  In the back of my mind I knew she wouldn't make it that long, but I was prayerfully hoping she would be here long enough to see him once he was born.  One evening I went over to my mom and dad's house to sit with her.  My mom told me she wasn't eating and that my niece got her to eat a strawberry shake (her favorite), but that was about it.  I went over there and just listened to her talk to me.  She told me how she needed to plant flowers in the garden on wall, she told me how proud of me she is, she also told me that I had a beautiful dark haired, blue eyed, sweet baby boy!  That one sort of shocked me a little because I was still pregnant.  It was a month before he was born.  She described exactly how he looked.  She said she got to rock him and kiss him on his forehead.  I just agreed with her, but inside I was questioning how in the world did she know what he looked like.  She asked me if I was going to be okay because she wanted to go on home (to heaven).  I told her I would be just fine, because I would see her again someday, and I told her it was okay for her to go now.  The next morning she passed peacefully in her sleep.  I can remember that day like it was yesterday.  I miss her so much.  I can still every now and then smell her cooking.  A month later my sweet, dark headed, blue eyed boy was born.  When I first laid eyes on him I thought of the last conversation I had with her.  I believe God showed my granny my baby boy and somehow she was able to hold him for a moment before he was even born.  I believe God has the power to do that.  Now my baby boy is 8 years old.  He knows his Granny even though he never actually got to meet her.  He knows how special he was to her.  I think he gets a little sad when his brother and sister talk about her because he don't have any memories with her, but he says "It's okay mom, I know I will meet her someday"  I know she will be one of the first people we meet with her arms wide open when we get to Heaven.  I think about her often and wished that she was still here, but I know she is in good hands waiting for all of us.  I think she is probably on kitchen duty in Heaven because she loved to cook and clean up so much.