Sunday, April 20, 2014

In My Pocket

Eldra is staying at my house for a couple days while my aunt and uncle are away. She is couching it. She is just super hip like that, and is cool with couching it at a friend's (or in this case a granddaughter's) house for a few days.

The thing is, that I wish it were longer. I love being around her. I love having her here. I love taking care of her. I wish she could just stay here and never go back to my aunt and uncles house. It reminds me of something she used to say to me when I was a kid.

Whenever she was leaving wherever we were, she would say she wished she could just put me (or whichever grandchild she was talking to) in her pocket and take me home with her. It was wonderful to hear that as a child. To be told that I was loved so much that she wished she could just take me home with her. What a glorious feeling to be so loved.

In 1John 4:19 it says; "We love him, because he first loved us."

I think this is why I love her so much. Because she loved me so much when I was little. And now, I just can't help but love her.

Friday, April 11, 2014

"UPS!"

Eldra's first grand daughter is her favorite. And I don't mind knowing that. We are a family of people who have favorites, I'm pretty sure everybody knows whose is whose and we handle it.

But Eldras is her first. And she lives far away. And she works for UPS. To be specific she delivers packages for UPS. So Eldra has an affinity for UPS trucks. 


Not just a normal happy to see a big brown truck driving down the street kind of affinity. It's a so surprised and happy to see a big brown truck that she has to yell "Ups" at the top of her lungs kind of affinity. And she points at it. Then just to be sure that you heard her, she yells it a couple more times.

It's awesome when his happens while we are driving. I should say while I am driving. Because every time I hear her yell it, my adrenaline goes from 0-60 in about a millisecond and I think she's trying to point out a car careening towards us, and I prepare for us to get T-boned. But then happily I realize that it's just a UPS truck. 

It is the driving equivalent to watching one of those stupid videos on the Internet where the creepy face pops up and scares the life out of you.

I wonder if I'll ever get used to it. Or if my body will eventually stop reacting like the guy on pulp fiction when he gets an adrenaline shot in the heart. 

They say that 80%of caregivers for people with dementia die before the person with dementia does. "Ups!"

I get why. 

Who Is Eldra

Eldra is my Grandmother. She is a fire cracker. She loves and hates with her whole being. She has been through some of the toughest trials any woman should ever have to endure. And yet she still somehow finds joy in the smallest things.

It is an adventure just to hang out with her, you never know if she is going to love the heck out of you or yell at you. And she will do both during the same visit. And she is not a respector of persons, she will yell at you, or the mailman, or her great grandchildren just the same. But she also has the sweetest heart, and for some reason I just like being around her.

The purpose of this Blog, is to give the entire world a chance to enjoy my grandmother. And to keep me sane while I enjoy being around her.

This is Eldra, almost 93 years old. Still a fire cracker.





She was born in 1922 in Boise Idaho in a little house on a little street which is now paved over and part of the BYU Idaho Campus.

I have a memory full of experiences with her.