Friday, April 8, 2011

Grandma Dayton

(thank you to my cousin Damian for the photo)

My sweet 101 year old great-grandmother passed away early yesterday morning. What a shock it was. I know she was 101, but she has survived a lot, and always seems to pull through any ailment, including a coma.

She was as close to perfect can get with a little touch of spunk, ok maybe a lot of spunk. I never saw her sad or mad. Not even at her husband's, my great-grandpa, funeral. She smiled through the whole thing.

My cousin Damian writes so well. This is a paragraph from his blog post about grandma:

 I remember a time when I went to LDS General Conference with her. Elder Richard G. Scott, on of the 12 apostles and most senior leaders in my church saw us sitting together and came up to us. He spoke briefly to my grandmother and then turned to me. He said, "I want you to know that I have stayed at your grandmother's house, and because of that I can say that I have slept on Holy Ground." I can think of no finer compliment to pay her, no more apt description of her character, and no grander accomplishment than that. Here a servant of the Lord, a man that I honor as a special witness for Christ, who has traveled the world and sat in sacred ceremony as deep matters of doctrine and church policy was discussed and yet he noticed that the humble home of this fine woman was Holy Ground. Being around her, I just felt loved.


There are a few things she used to always tell me growing up:

Pretty is as pretty does.

Happy girls are popular girls. Be happy.

When I was in my last year of college, I was up in Cokeville visiting and grandma was staying with my other grandma (Carol). She asked me how my dating life was going. I told her that it wasn't going great, and this was her advice:

If you find a boy you like, chase him! Don't make him come to you.

I laughed. I couldn't believe my 97 year old grandma was telling me to chase boys! I knew she was wise, so I told her I would do it.

I will miss her. I know she is where she wants to be, with my grandpa, uncle, her siblings, and her parents. I can't help but be selfish and wish she were still here. It will be weird not to have her at all of the family festivities. She never wanted to miss out. I was looking forward to getting a 5 generation picture when the baby is born, but I know she is so happy where she is right now.

She could make a mean salad dressing and bean salad. She liked to eat her bread and cookies a little dark (burnt). She loved horses. She believed in a potato a day. She always liked to get her 20 minutes of Vitamin D (sun) in. She rarely missed her daily dose of buttermilk and vinegar. She wore pretty things. She was lady like. She was a character and everyone around her loved her. She loved the Gospel. She loved her family. She loved the Savior.

I love her.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Very good!