A Year of Firsts

Well, today is the first birthday that I can ever remember that I didn't receive a birthday card from my Grandmother. She passed away last March and thus began the dreaded year of firsts, the first year that she and Gracy couldn't celebrate their birthdays together, the first year that she didn't send me a card, the first Thanksgiving we won't see her sweet face at the dinner table, the first Christmas we'll miss her childlike excitement over every tiny little gift with her name on it and the list goes on and on. It seems that just when you think it is getting easier another first sneaks up and smacks you on the back of the head. So today I thought I would share one of my favorite stories about her. A little background for those of you who were not fortunate enough to meet my Grandmother: She was a petite little thing who was incredibly sweet and kindhearted who never had a bad thing to say about anyone maybe that's why the following story has always been so amusing to me.

When my mom was little they lived next door to my grandpa's sister and her family and one day Mom was over their playing with her cousins when one of the boys started being mean to my mom and Aunt Dianne. Well, for whatever reason grandpa's sister got really mad at mom and Dianne and told them to leave and not come back. So mom and Dianne went home upset and told Grandma what had happened and without saying a word Grandma in her robe with curlers in her hair, marched to her sister-in-laws house, threw open the door stormed through the house to the kitchen where she picked up a pot on the stove that contained the rice that had been borrowed from her earlier that day marched back out of the front door and without a word dumped the hot steaming rice onto the front lawn!!! She then returned the pan to the kitchen and went back home. Luckily she was not one to like confrontation or to hold a grudge so she got her point across and the incident was never mentioned again. Maybe that explains a little of where we, "Gillis Girls", get our feistiness from!!

She will always be missed but especially during the "Firsts".