angels

so....dust's grandma gerry passed early saturday morning. there's just no easy way to say that, so there ya go. i haven't written anything about her struggles on here cuz it's hard and cuz i was holding out hope that she'd make it through everything i guess. it happened though, and we got the call at 1:26am early saturday morning. she has been in the hospital for the last few weeks, and it didn't look good for the last little while, but both her and her husband dick have always pulled through their health challenges no matter what they've been, so my fingers were crossed nice and tight. it's really quite a blessing that she passed on to the other side because she had a few strokes and was non-responsive and possibly in pain and just wasn't looking good, and now she can run and jump and dance and smile, and that's enough to bring a smile to our face in this time of sadness and loss.


when we got the call about her passing, i automatically thought of elder holland's talk in conference last weekend about angels. dust had to study and missed it, so he ran up and got the computer, and we watched it at 2am. i lost my grandpa when i was 13 but didn't fully understand what was going on and the grief that i felt, and other than that, both dust and i haven't lost anyone close to us. so, elder holland's talk meant a whole lot more to me early saturday morning with a mortal angel who we loved so much making the change to an immortal angel. i thought about my amazing grandpa hill up there and dust's grandma gerry and how lucky we are to have them on our side. we joked about them chillin with our little guy to come giving him the 4-1-1 on his parents to be (although it could very well be true!), and i just felt very grateful to have heard that talk and to be able to make the connection that angels really are real and that we have some on our side up there :)


dust (and the rest of his family) was super duper close to his grandparents, and losing her has been especially hard on him and them. it's hard to know what to say and what to do for me sometimes, but i love them and support them and am always there for them. i got to know gerry fairly well too, and there have been many a tears shed at her passing. she was so awesome and so much fun and always brought a smile to my face whether it was hearing her cute voice on the phone or seeing her sitting in her usual chair so excited to see us again. she was so patient and so loving and got so much joy out of family and friends and the little things in life. she discovered those ugg-looking slippers from la senza and had them in at least 3 different colors cuz she was always cold. she had thing for keeping things, and there were many a times where we found very old outdated food in her cupboards and joked about how she was gonna get sick. she always laughed about it, and we would routinely take things out to the garbage during our visits - haha. she was so excited to meet our little baby to come and was convinced in a dream that it was a girl and that we would name her jewel! we are told it's a boy though -too bad jewel isn't one of those both gender names!

lucky for us, we got to go to the temple on saturday for one of gerry's grandson's wedding, and how lucky are we to live so close to the temple and to be able to feel so close to heaven and the people up there. gerry was definitely looking on, and i think we can all agree that her angelic spirit was in that sealing room. we love you gerry, and we miss you, but we know that we will be able to run and jump and dance with you soon :)