On Friday, May 2, the phone call came that we've all been expecting. Grandma Morton, age 96, had died.
It's odd to think that she won't be sitting in the chair in my parent's living room the next time I visit Salt Lake City. Here is a picture of Grandma Morton and little Holden from Christmas 2003.
I'll miss her. Still I wouldn't have wished more years on her and her death was about as peaceful as you could hope for. She died while sleeping at her daughter Annette's house.
Grandma was out at Annette's since my parents had just left for a trip to the Holy Land. Grandma lived in the corner bedroom at my parent's house for the past 4+ years. The funeral is set for May 21 so that Mom and Dad will be back from Israel.
I've been thinking about Grandma Morton memories. Here are a few:
- Raspberry jam. Grandma had a huge raspberry patch in the backyard of her Rexburg, Idaho home. She'd always bring glass jars full of frozen raspberry jam when she'd come and visit us and homemade white bread (kneaded by hand) and stacks and stacks of bratzelles.
- I remember trips with the whole family to visit Rexburg during summers. We'd play the old games, Mousetrap, and Monopoly and Risk that were stored in the downstairs closet. In the backyard we'd have mammoth sessions of croquet. We'd go on excursions to the sand dunes and of course Yellowstone park.
- When she'd come and help mom after a baby (I have no idea which one or ones) I remember her cleaning cupboards and the floor. She was a hard worker.
- Once when we were visiting her ward on a fast Sunday, Grandma stood up to share her testimony. It was the old way where you'd stand up and they'd bring the microphone to you. I don't remember most of what she said, just that she wanted her grandchildren to know that she believed. I think I was most impressed because Grandma didn't talk about that stuff all the time.
- In the house on Harvard Ave in Rexburg she had a fruit room. She kept jars and jars of bottled fruit there. In her "young Grandma" days it was always filled with jars of cherries, apricots, peaches and best of all pears with a little slice of orange in them. Even after she stopped canning that room still had its wonderful smell for years.
- In recent years Grandma always would tell me that I had "beautiful and such smart little children" and such a "nice husband."
When I told my children that Grandma Morton had died I asked them if they knew who she was. Yes they said, "the one in the chair." My children will only have brief memories of Grandma in her latest years. In my mind I think that Grandma will always be frozen at about age 80--old enough to be a Grandma but still driving her car and making those cookies and banana nut bread.
