We got back from Gatlinburg on August 5th, started school on the 8th, and on August 19th my dad called to let us know Grandma Madsen had passed away.
When we were in Idaho just a month earlier we spent some time with Grandma and I was amazed at how healthy she was. She was happy and beautiful.
While we were in Tennessee my dad told us she had taken a sharp turn and was mostly sleeping, not eating much and not very responsive. I was pretty surprised, since we had been with her three weeks earlier and she had seemed so healthy...but I guess it wasn't really shocking since she was almost 93 years old.
I am so grateful that we got to see her while she was healthy.
I have so many memories of Grandma Madsen. She was such an amazing woman!
I will always remember how sweet she was. Always happy and smiling. Always reading her scriptures and the Reader's Digest. :)
She was so strong. Always willing to walk out to the cows and horses with me and my kids. Always willing to search for the baby kittens so the girls could see them!
And there are some funny childhood memories that will always be with me, like picking her raspberries. I specifically remember that she would encourage us to wear long sleeve shirts so our arms wouldn't get scraped up. Of course, it was hot, so we never did, and I am sure she thought we were so stupid for it when we were whining and complaining about our scratched up arms!
I will remember things like her crunchy green carpet and how we would get into the cupboard next to the piano, lay on the crunchy carpet and do puzzles and play Old Maid. And then, how twenty years later, my kids lay on that same carpet and did the exact puzzles and played the exact same Old Maid game at her house.
She always had cold pop in the fridge in the summer and a cozy fire in the wood burning stove in the winter. She always had cookies in her cookie jar. And I loved the little plastic yellow cups she had. They had a little silver fleck in them. Weird, but I always thought they were cool.
I remember, as a kid, racing around her house and having to jump over the silver irrigation pipe on the south side under the kitchen window. Or how we would run into the cool, dark potato cellar and yell just to hear our echo. And how I absolutely loved, and still love, the distinct dirt smell that was in there.
She was pretty awesome. By her example I think everyone who knew her learned what she valued in life. She knew "things" weren't important. You don't need "stuff" to be happy. Family, friends, relationships, knowledge...that stuff mattered.
We will miss her, but I am sure she is loving being with her husband and family in Heaven!
