My Sweet Grandmother--Jane Ann Beal

My Grandmother passed away on Monday, July 13, 2015.  This was actually a very good thing.  She was ready for it.  She out-lived my grandpa, Pooka, by 17 years.  While we were visiting over the 4th of July, my grandmother was admitted into the hospital (from the nursing home) for pneumonia.  She passed away 9 days later peacefully in her sleep with my mom by her side.

Instead of a funeral, we held a "Celebration of Life" on Saturday, August 8th which would have been her 93rd birthday.  We had the best time telling stories of our "GG."  She was the PERFECT grandmother and we all pretty much had the same memories of her "magical" home.  Swimming/skinny-dipping, sourdough toast, rides in the mustangs, shopping followed by fashion shows, and just everything that made her GG.  My most favorite memory of her was when I was in high school and I played the oboe.  The oboe is a difficult instrument to tackle on your own and the closest oboe teacher to me was in Albuquerque, NM--which was a 4 hour drive from Deming.  My grandma came to Deming during the summer and she and I drove to Albuquerque for 4 days so that I could get private instruction from the professor at UNM.  I have NO idea what this cost her--on top of the hotel room and food--but she was GLAD to do it and it was a trip that even she remembered well into her dementia years.  She was just so supportive of WHATEVER we did.  After this trip to Albuquerque, I made All-State my last 3 years of high school--ranking as the #2 oboist in the state of NM my senior year.  I could never thank her enough for this.

GG will be sorely missed but I am so happy to know that she is back with her Pooka.  Love you GG.

Beautiful inside and out:)

My grandparents eloped and this was their "wedding" picture:)

On our way home from Deming after her funeral, we stopped by my grandparent's old home in Tucson.  It sure seemed small and definitely didn't have the sparkle that it once had (and the current owners have killed every plant/tree that was once there:/) but I LOVED this home: