On September 18, 2014 my sweet Grandma Persis passed away in the presence of my mom and Patricia, my mom's cousin. She went very peacefully, in her sleep, and just quietly passed away while they sat next to her bed. It was still so hard to me to accept that she was gone.
I was taking a nap that day and had put my phone on silent. Trevor came in the bedroom and asked me why I hadn't told him my grandma had passed away. Shocked, I asked what he meant. He said that Shawn had posted on Facebook that my Grandma had passed away. Surely enough, I had a voicemail from my mom to please call her and she confirmed the news. I think Shawn must have assumed I knew but it was a hard way to find out. I was heartbroken even though I knew it was coming. It's hard because Grandma was a staple in my life for 28 years. She was a constant- always there and such a strong influence on my life. My grandma was one of my closest friends, and even though the past couple years of her life her hearing got so bad that it was hard to communicate, we still knew we loved each other. I hated seeing her health decline and seeing her lose her mobility and freedom, so I know that when she passed on and was able to walk again, hear again, and do as she pleased, she was loving it! I also can only imagine the reunion she had on the other side with all of her loved ones. That day I gained a guardian angel and I couldn't have asked for a better one. I miss her so much though. I will never forget her or the impact she made on my life and I will always strive to be more like her.
I was able to go home for a quick, two day trip for the funeral. I gave the life sketch and though I cried through most of it, it was really nice to be able to do this one last thing for my gram. Her funeral was wonderful and very fitting for her and her spunky personality. It was probably the most irreverent funeral EVER (haha!) but it was one of the best I've been to. All of us grandkids spoke of memories of her, (which included a little profanity here and there-after all she did teach most of us to curse!) and we had the whole congregation laughing with some of the memories. We did that instead of talks and I loved that we did. Grandma would have hated talks anyway.
Mom, Jan, and Jean
The Bartholomeusz Family with my mom, aunt, and uncle
Mom and Dad
Shawn, Mom, Dad, and me
Granny was KNOWN for putting her hand in front of her face if you tried to take a picture of her. She HATED pictures! So this picture was done in honor of her.
All of us cousins together, in front of my sister Janie's grave. The first time we'd all been together since I was a little girl.
Dayna, me, and Malia
That same day we were able to dedicate the grave of my uncle Gary Bartholomeusz and have his whole family there as well. He passed away in September of 2012. He wasn't my uncle by blood, but he and his family are our adopted family and we consider them our own. It was so nice being able to have our family all here to celebrate the lives of two very special people.
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