This was quite a while ago, but I haven't been able to stop thinking about it and can't let it go un-blogged. It was part of my trip home to Washington this summer.
After my brother's wedding and everyone headed home after a few days of playing , the house was REALLY quiet. We had some many people all over the house and then within two days, everyone was on their way home on planes and in cars. I planned on staying for an extra couple of weeks and knew everyone else wasn't, but all the fun chaos ended too soon! My parents and Luke even headed out to Wyoming for the reception at Chelsea's hometown. So I literally had the monster house that had 30 or more people buzzing through it the last week all to myself. Weird.
Sunday night came and we had news that Grandma Honey, my mom's mom, wasn't doing so well. This was big news, but for all of us that had seen her in the last week, we could all tell that this might be the last time to see her. She passed away the next morning, August 13th. Grandpa Bob came to visit her and said good morning with a kiss and then she passed away peacefully.
As much as all of her kids and grand-kids knew this was coming, there were plenty of tears. As the news spread and the plans for the funeral were made, it was overwhelming and so wonderful to see so many of her posterity dropping their lives and driving and flying out. It was nice that I hadn't left and was able to be there still. Grandpa Bob was brought to tears, which rarely happens, as he heard of how not only were his kids and spouses going to be there, but the majority of his grand kids too. My sister, Tracie, tried so hard to be able to come, even though she had just arrived home in Germany less than a week before. There were over 20 of the grand kids there and it wasn't easy for everyone to come.
The plans and preparations were made for the funeral. As everyone came into town, our house was once again overflowing with family. This time was different though. There was a somber reverence through the house. We all knew why were there and as we all reflected on the life of Grandma Honey and the wife, mother and grandmother that she was, we all had so much respect for her. We all stayed busy gathering pictures from her life and enjoying seeing her through her years as we put together a presentation. Picking songs that we all knew she would love to dance around the house and get moving to was fun too.
It was great to reconnect with aunts and uncles and cousins too. Some of them we haven't seen in 10 years! We spent hours in the backyard chatting away and we even got in a boys vs. girls game of Encore. Those Longman boys will always have the craziest stories...always!
We went down to the river and enjoyed a BBQ and wading in the cold river. I could have promised you that it used to be warmer when I was little, but the crazy kid in me must not have cared one bit. I loved all the time just sitting around with the extended family just chatting away. It had been way too long and we already have plans to get together in two summers. It will be such a good reunion!
The kids of us cousins (2nd cousins?) had a good time playing too. Katelyn thought it was so neat to tag along with Sammy and Jaelyn. They picked green unripe apples and peaches off the tree and chowed down on them while jumping on the trampoline in the blazing heat just laughing and giggling away as little girls do. They would all pile onto the piano bench and make "lovely" music together. Towards the end of the week, Katelyn and Jaelyn had a love/hate relationship and when they would get tired, they weren't so good of friends...whoops!
Saturday we had the funeral. With songs picked that we know Grandma Honey loved we all started off with tears ready to flow. Aunt Karen told the beutiful story of her life that had us all laughing and crying. She captured the spunk that Grandma Honey had and also the wonderful heart full of love that she had and shared too.
Then it was time to sing...we thought it would be special to have the grand kids sing How Great Thou Art . Our practice went great, but our performance was missing a lot of our voices as we were trying to hold off the tears to sing. I think there were a few unexpected solos that resulted from all of us cry babies! And those high notes were pretty quiet too! Any time that I was singing, I wasn't able to hit the higher notes. I don't really know how it sounded, but I am sure that Kaylee played the piano wonderfully with a few voices to back her up!
Then Uncle Jeff shared a beautiful talk about God's plan for all of us. I loved what he said in reference to Grandpa Bob's career of nuclear engineering when he said, "Dad had a job to start each day with something, and by the end of the day turn it into nothing but energy. Mom had the job to start each day with 6 children with nothing but energy and turn us into something." He also had us laughing and crying. He shared of how Grandma Honey searched out who God is and gained a testimony. It was so neat to hear.
The whole time we all couldn't help but be sad she was gone. She was a huge part of my childhood as we would go visit every summer and those memories are so fun. Growing older isn't always fun and the fact that we can't relive those summer days and get to be greeted with her hugs where I could smell her "grandma perfume" and pretend to run away from her kisses. Tillamook won't ever be the same without her. But we were also happy for her that she could be herself again. She no longer has the frustrations and that age and diseases limited her with. One of the greatest parts is that she has been reunited with her daughter that passed away when she was 10 of leukemia. We all often talked about how joyous that reunion must have been and how I wished I could have seen it. Those two have so much to talk about!
I constantly think about Grandpa Bob. How is he doing? How was he handling all of this? Even though he knew it was coming, it was still his sweetheart and his beautiful wife. It makes me sad to think of the loneliness and the sorrow that comes from losing a loved one, especially your spouse. Elder Bowen talked in conference about losing his child and I kept thinking about Grandma Honey through his talk especially when he said, "Sometimes people will ask, “How long did it take you to get over it?” The truth is, you will never completely get over it until you are together once again with your departed loved ones. I will never have a fulness of joy until we are reunited in the morning of the First Resurrection." He went on to say that we must go on and "be of good cheer." I don't know exactly how he is doing, but I do know that I admire him so much. As he took such good care of her, especially in the last few years when she didn't remember who he was most of the time, he had such compassion and love for her. He would visit often when living with her wasn't a stable option. He did all that he could with her, all that her health allowed. He was so sweet with her and would cater so much to her needs and put his desires aside to do whatever was needed to help her feel comfortable and safe. I have often told David that he better take notes, because that is what I want if the time ever comes. Grandpa Bob was a true gentleman and a wonderful spouse. He tried to make getting old as easy as he could on her and showed how deeply he loved and cared for her.
I am so amazed with her and her life. I feel honored to be named after her. I am pretty sure she changed her name from Lucretia to Lorry when she was a teenager or young adult, and went by Lorry for most of her life (except for us grand kids calling her Grandma Honey) She was someone that I look up to and she always wanted her kids and grand kids to know what is right and to do what is right. I can't wait to see her vibrant self when I get to meet her again in heaven. I will never forget her unique laugh that she laughed so much because us rascally kids were always doing something goofy.
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She always came to help my mom out when the new babies arrived. When Abby was born, she took Matt and I, the youngest two other than the new baby, to her house for a week or so so my mom didn't have to worry about us (like she had anything to worry about :)!)
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The 4th of July will never be as good as it was at Rockaway Beach. The big firework show, the campfire, digging out our sand couches and the fun races that we made money off of when we won! It doesn't get much better than Rockaway! Even with the foggy smoky years!
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We spent a lot of time digging and searching the tide pools for critters of all sorts...and it never mattered if we did our hair in the morning apparently!
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Here's Matt and I doing the wheelbarrow race and we won first place one year! Our family always had a few winners who got some good money. I won the mile race one year and got 50 bucks! That's a lot of money to a teenager...and it was painful running in the soft sand! I was in pretty good shape from summer sports, but my legs were not used to sand! Ouch! It was good money though!
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Multnomah Falls was always a favorite pitstop along the way. Ice cream cones and a pretty view and sometimes a good hike if rocks weren't in the way!
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We loved numbing our bodies up in the freezing ocean!
More fireworks!
These sand dunes were always part of the visit too!
I will miss staying at her house when we head to the Oregon coast...the raccoons will definitely miss her too!
Showing off my sweet baby Katelyn!
We love you Grandma Honey and we all miss your cute silly self. But no matter how much we miss you, I can promise you that Grandpa Bob misses you more than all of us combined. We will always have sweet memories to share of you!
After my brother's wedding and everyone headed home after a few days of playing , the house was REALLY quiet. We had some many people all over the house and then within two days, everyone was on their way home on planes and in cars. I planned on staying for an extra couple of weeks and knew everyone else wasn't, but all the fun chaos ended too soon! My parents and Luke even headed out to Wyoming for the reception at Chelsea's hometown. So I literally had the monster house that had 30 or more people buzzing through it the last week all to myself. Weird.
Sunday night came and we had news that Grandma Honey, my mom's mom, wasn't doing so well. This was big news, but for all of us that had seen her in the last week, we could all tell that this might be the last time to see her. She passed away the next morning, August 13th. Grandpa Bob came to visit her and said good morning with a kiss and then she passed away peacefully.
As much as all of her kids and grand-kids knew this was coming, there were plenty of tears. As the news spread and the plans for the funeral were made, it was overwhelming and so wonderful to see so many of her posterity dropping their lives and driving and flying out. It was nice that I hadn't left and was able to be there still. Grandpa Bob was brought to tears, which rarely happens, as he heard of how not only were his kids and spouses going to be there, but the majority of his grand kids too. My sister, Tracie, tried so hard to be able to come, even though she had just arrived home in Germany less than a week before. There were over 20 of the grand kids there and it wasn't easy for everyone to come.
The plans and preparations were made for the funeral. As everyone came into town, our house was once again overflowing with family. This time was different though. There was a somber reverence through the house. We all knew why were there and as we all reflected on the life of Grandma Honey and the wife, mother and grandmother that she was, we all had so much respect for her. We all stayed busy gathering pictures from her life and enjoying seeing her through her years as we put together a presentation. Picking songs that we all knew she would love to dance around the house and get moving to was fun too.
It was great to reconnect with aunts and uncles and cousins too. Some of them we haven't seen in 10 years! We spent hours in the backyard chatting away and we even got in a boys vs. girls game of Encore. Those Longman boys will always have the craziest stories...always!
We went down to the river and enjoyed a BBQ and wading in the cold river. I could have promised you that it used to be warmer when I was little, but the crazy kid in me must not have cared one bit. I loved all the time just sitting around with the extended family just chatting away. It had been way too long and we already have plans to get together in two summers. It will be such a good reunion!
The kids of us cousins (2nd cousins?) had a good time playing too. Katelyn thought it was so neat to tag along with Sammy and Jaelyn. They picked green unripe apples and peaches off the tree and chowed down on them while jumping on the trampoline in the blazing heat just laughing and giggling away as little girls do. They would all pile onto the piano bench and make "lovely" music together. Towards the end of the week, Katelyn and Jaelyn had a love/hate relationship and when they would get tired, they weren't so good of friends...whoops!
Saturday we had the funeral. With songs picked that we know Grandma Honey loved we all started off with tears ready to flow. Aunt Karen told the beutiful story of her life that had us all laughing and crying. She captured the spunk that Grandma Honey had and also the wonderful heart full of love that she had and shared too.
Then it was time to sing...we thought it would be special to have the grand kids sing How Great Thou Art . Our practice went great, but our performance was missing a lot of our voices as we were trying to hold off the tears to sing. I think there were a few unexpected solos that resulted from all of us cry babies! And those high notes were pretty quiet too! Any time that I was singing, I wasn't able to hit the higher notes. I don't really know how it sounded, but I am sure that Kaylee played the piano wonderfully with a few voices to back her up!
Then Uncle Jeff shared a beautiful talk about God's plan for all of us. I loved what he said in reference to Grandpa Bob's career of nuclear engineering when he said, "Dad had a job to start each day with something, and by the end of the day turn it into nothing but energy. Mom had the job to start each day with 6 children with nothing but energy and turn us into something." He also had us laughing and crying. He shared of how Grandma Honey searched out who God is and gained a testimony. It was so neat to hear.
The whole time we all couldn't help but be sad she was gone. She was a huge part of my childhood as we would go visit every summer and those memories are so fun. Growing older isn't always fun and the fact that we can't relive those summer days and get to be greeted with her hugs where I could smell her "grandma perfume" and pretend to run away from her kisses. Tillamook won't ever be the same without her. But we were also happy for her that she could be herself again. She no longer has the frustrations and that age and diseases limited her with. One of the greatest parts is that she has been reunited with her daughter that passed away when she was 10 of leukemia. We all often talked about how joyous that reunion must have been and how I wished I could have seen it. Those two have so much to talk about!
I constantly think about Grandpa Bob. How is he doing? How was he handling all of this? Even though he knew it was coming, it was still his sweetheart and his beautiful wife. It makes me sad to think of the loneliness and the sorrow that comes from losing a loved one, especially your spouse. Elder Bowen talked in conference about losing his child and I kept thinking about Grandma Honey through his talk especially when he said, "Sometimes people will ask, “How long did it take you to get over it?” The truth is, you will never completely get over it until you are together once again with your departed loved ones. I will never have a fulness of joy until we are reunited in the morning of the First Resurrection." He went on to say that we must go on and "be of good cheer." I don't know exactly how he is doing, but I do know that I admire him so much. As he took such good care of her, especially in the last few years when she didn't remember who he was most of the time, he had such compassion and love for her. He would visit often when living with her wasn't a stable option. He did all that he could with her, all that her health allowed. He was so sweet with her and would cater so much to her needs and put his desires aside to do whatever was needed to help her feel comfortable and safe. I have often told David that he better take notes, because that is what I want if the time ever comes. Grandpa Bob was a true gentleman and a wonderful spouse. He tried to make getting old as easy as he could on her and showed how deeply he loved and cared for her.
I am so amazed with her and her life. I feel honored to be named after her. I am pretty sure she changed her name from Lucretia to Lorry when she was a teenager or young adult, and went by Lorry for most of her life (except for us grand kids calling her Grandma Honey) She was someone that I look up to and she always wanted her kids and grand kids to know what is right and to do what is right. I can't wait to see her vibrant self when I get to meet her again in heaven. I will never forget her unique laugh that she laughed so much because us rascally kids were always doing something goofy.
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Showing off my sweet baby Katelyn!
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