Grandma Bradshaw

I have been trying to write this for a couple weeks now but it is hard because there is a lot to say and a lot that is hard to put into words. My Grandma passed away a couple weeks ago. She was the most amazing person. She was so talented, strong willed, and classy.
She was always the one in charge, even when it came to her obituary which she wrote herself and her funeral which she planned most of. I think we are all feeling a little lost without her there to run things.
At the last Christmas party I sat down to talk to her for a while and I had Delilah with me. She said that it was the fist time she had seen Delilah. I told her no she had seen her two times before that, she said "oh those times didn't count". It made me laugh a little, she hated being wrong.
She wasn't the type of person to sit around and do nothing. She woke up everyday with things to accomplish. I think as she got older and unable to get things done herself it really bugged her. As soon as she got to the other side she got right to work. Only hours after she died my dad got a phone call about a job offer. I am sure first thing she did was give my grandpa a big hug and kiss and then said "Alright I have work to do".

I remember when I was little she showed me this picture of her when she was younger and I thought she was so beautiful. As I got older I realized she was still beautiful. She always had her hair done and make up on. I remember she always re applied her lipstick after she ate. And she always had her fingernails painted the same pink color. She always had on jewelery, I used to love to play with it as a little kid. She always had on a bunch of bracelets that always made noise when she moved and she was always wearing some sort of interesting (sometimes dangerous looking) big necklace. My favorite was an owl necklace that my dad had given her. I loved that necklace and I am so thankful it is now sitting in my jewelry box.
When I was a baby we lived in the apartment right across the hall from my grandparents and she always told me about how I used to crawl across the hall and knock on her door and when she would open it I would totally ignore her and go straight to the toy closet.
I will always remember baking cookies and little pies with her when I was little. And then she would always have me come sit on the back step to take a picture of me with what I made. I remember her teaching me to cross stitch. I remember lots of lunches with her and cousins. I remember sleep overs at her house and sleeping in the fold out couch in the office. And she would make me mickey mouse pancakes in the morning. I remember her making me lunch and getting mad at me because I didn't eat the crust on my sandwich and then giving me the lecture about the starving kids in Africa complete with names of these kids and stories about them. I remember the trips to the beach and showing her all the sea shells I had collected. And time spent at the cabin with her.
Most of all I will remember the summer I spent taking art lessons from her. I always had to do a few chores for her and then we would sit down at the kitchen table, sometimes in the office at a card table if the kitchen table had genealogy work all over it, and she would have a lay out printed out for me of what we were going to work on and my homework (I think I forgot to mention she was very organized) and yes she would give me homework. She would also have a reading assignment for me out of the book How to Win Friends and Influence People which was one of my grandpas favorite books. I learned so much from her, water color, calligraphy, and other art stuff. She was such a talented artist and always complained how she couldn't draw and paint anymore because of her arthritis. My dad found a painting of hers that she did in 1984 in a storage at her old apartment and he brought it home knowing I would like it.

Funny I saw it sitting on my parents kitchen table and thought it was pretty and wondered if it had an owner and if I could have it and then my dad informed me he had brought it home for me. She had also given me a plate she had painted and I decorated my kitchen around that plate.


She loved my kids so much too. She used to love to hold them as babies, and I could tell when she would see Delilah she really wanted to hold her but was to weak to do it. She used to write Hazel letters and because Hazel was too little to write back I would write for her and always added pictures too. She once made Hazel a little book with pictures she had cut out of magazines. She was always so creative.


Her and my Grandpa were such a great example of a good marriage. They loved each other so much. After he died she got herself a big teddy bear to sleep with because she needed something to cuddle with at night. She had been without him 20 years! Way to long to be without the person you love. I am sure that my grandpa was sitting in the room waiting for her to join him again the night she died. Kind of weird to think as we were all crying he was probably so excited he could hardly stand it. And I am sure they haven't left each others side since they got each other back. Right after I got married she told me a saying that made me laugh " Divorce NEVER, Murder maybe". I still think about that saying every time Isaac is bugging me : )
My dad read a poem at her funeral that she wrote that I really liked.

Woman

Woman, Woman,
What is she?
From Adam's rib
God fashioned thee.
And placed within
thy supple frame
A Spirit lasting
and aflame...
With goodness, kindness,
love untold,
And from thy heart
it doth unfold
To bless the lives of
others here
Existing on this
earthly sphere.

Woman, Woman,
who art thou?
That man should pay
the homage now?
For, from thy bosom
all go forth
To mingle with the
Sons of Earth.
Taught right from wrong
at thy fair knee,
And what their missions
here should be,
To bring thee honor
or disdain,
Not knowing when they
cause you pain.

Woman, Woman
tell me true.
Is there joy in
what you do...?
"Ah, yes, my friend,"
she answered slow,
"There is gladness here below...
My sons have conquered
countries wide
And changed the flow
of human tide
By spreading God's work
far abroad.
And thru this service
brought me laud!"

Woman, Woman
how sublime
That God would give
us - Womankind!
Elma S. Bradshaw
Jan. 1, 1977

Grandma thank you for everything you have past down to me, my love and talent for art, my stubbornness, my great fingernails, I wish you would have kept the genetics for migraines to yourself though : ) Thank you for giving me such a great dad too.

When I was little she told me that we had a special connection and I would always be special to her. I hope we can always keep that special connection.


See you later Grandma. Give Grandpa a big hug for me.