Goodbye, Grandma Chaney

We learned on Tuesday that Grandma Chaney died that morning. I had to tell Gabriela and my poor baby just dissolved into a puddle of tears. Easton has been telling everyone lately that his Grandma Chaney is dying. But that day he came up to me and said, "I don't like dying!" He was worried about his mama and daddy dying and dying himself. 

I asked Gabriela to think about how Grandma must be feeling and to write her a letter. She sat down and wrote this all by herself:

Dear Grandma, I am so sad about Grandma  Chaney, but that's not why I wrote you this letter. It's because you, you must be the saddest. That was your mother. When I found out I was in tears for at least an hour. My stomach had flipped over, it felt like the world came to an end. All my memories of her flooded through my heart and brain. Love, Gabriela

Soon after this, Easton was in tears because he couldn't write his name on Gabriela's letter. I offered to give him his own paper, but he had none of it and stomped off. When I asked why he wanted to write so badly on Gabriela's note, he said he wanted Grandma to know that letter was from him too. So he got a chance to add to the letter. 

After Lane got home, we got some flowers and put them up next to a picture of Grandma Chaney. We lit a candle and Gabriela did an activity from her Help Me Say Goodbye book. We all said things we loved about Grandma Chaney, shared stories about her, and blew out the candle. Before heading off to bed for the night, we looked at pictures of Grandma. The kids loved seeing pictures of them with Grandma, and seeing her pretty happy face. We will all miss that special lady and are so lucky to see her live to the age of 95.