Stories from Grandma

I went a-visiting Grandma this weekend. As always, Grandma was a heap full of crazy.

One afternoon, I spent about 45 minutes just sitting around and talking with Grandma. It wasn't too long before she thought of something very important she had to show me. She excitedly leads me to her room and opens the well know middle drawer of her dresser. It is the "just in case I die" drawer. I have come to know it well over the years as Grandma prepares (a little too exuberantly, some would say) for her upcoming eternal rest.

This time she not only brought out the large plastic zip up folder which contains all her funeral and business plans, but she emptied it. Normally she is quite contented with showing me the folder just so I remember where it is. However, this was not as normal. Grandma brought out envelope upon envelope - all varying in shapes and sizes. Each one was neatly titled in scratchy old lady hand writing with names like "Copy of the Will" and "Songs for the funeral". She piled them across her bed and looked over them searching for what she had started the process.

Grandma never did remember why she brought me to look at her middle drawer. However, we looked over each envelope carefully and I noticed a theme. Each one had another note stuck to it with directions and random thoughts Grandma had felt she needed to put down for safe keeping. Some were addressed to me, some to my uncles and some to the funeral director himself. One was an address for a friend in Ireland and a request to make her aware of Grandma's death.

"Not that I'm planning to die any time soon," Grandma assures me, "but I want to be prepared."

I don't doubt that she will outlive us all.