My Granny

This lady means so much to me... words just can't describe. My mom was quite young when I entered this world and so the first 5 years of my life were spent almost entirely with her. She was my world. She took me everywhere she went, read me a huge stack of Little Golden Books every morning of my little life, taught me how to bowl, and loved me more than life itself. I was the first grandchild and she treated me as if I and I alone was the reason the sun rose up in the sky each morning.

As I grew and my mom and I moved away from here, our relationship never wavered. Not one bit. All during college, I came home to her house almost as much as I went to my mom's or to see a boyfriend. And it was so wonderful to move back here to be near her after college and marriage.

And then when the opportunity to build our house beside her was presented, I jumped! Nothing sounded better than my babies being able to grow up next door to her and we could see her as much as we wanted. And we do spend as much time as we can with her. Emma and Noah love her so much.... Noah REALLY loves her. He thinks she's all his. :) We have lunch together several times a week and she is my constant shopping partner. She'll go anywhere and do anything and always tells me the same stories I've heard a million times my entire life. I love it. Every second of it.

Life wouldn't even make sense if she wasn't in it. I would lose such a large part of myself... my heart.

Please pray for her. She's had an endless stream of health issues the past few years and this week gave her yet another. She suffered a stroke on the right side of her brain. Unfortunately, a stroke is a silent attacker. Concealed deep in the brain, you have to be very aware and look for outward changes. The family knew that she was acting differently, but the changes weren't huge. There was no facial parylization, as is common with strokes, so it was unclear as to whether she was possibly coming down with the flu or some sort of infection or if it was something more serious. Well, being that the kids and I have been sick since last week, I hadn't been around her, so I hadn't observed any of these changes. So, yesterday when my mom called and told me she was unsure of what to do, I dressed the kids for the first time in days and we trekked over to Granny's. I immediately wanted to take her to the ER, just as a precaution and to make sure we knew what it actually was that was ailing her. So, after some discussion, my mom took her. They discovered it was a stroke and now she's in the hospital and will remain there at least a few more days. They're very optimistic about her recovery. The doctor said that where the stroke occured, she should be suffering speech and swallowing difficulties, but so far, these things aren't happening. This is a great relief, of course, but she still isn't acting just right. She doesn't seem to be entirely there all the time. I was there for four hours with her today and the first two hours, she basically slept the whole time, but then, her eyes would flutter open and I would talk to her and she didn't register that at all. She just looked off into the distance and didn't even acknowledge me when I got right in her face. But then later, when she woke up and was completely coherent, she seemed quite normal, which was very reassuring.

I appreciate all the prayers you've prayed for her so far, I would appreciate it so much if you could continue. I'll keep you guys updated on her progress...