15 years ago this week, my maternal Grandma\u00a0passed away.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I think that was the moment where\u00a0I realized that things\u00a0will never go back to the way they were before.<\/p>\n
For me growing up,\u00a0it was great being part of a big extended family.\u00a0 Everyone you know and care about has been around for as long as\u00a0you can remember, and you don’t know life without\u00a0everyone being present.\u00a0 And then she\u00a0unexpectedly left us…\u00a0and left an enormous\u00a0void in the fabric of our family.<\/p>\n
I remember that day- even though I was 22 at the time, it was like\u00a0I was\u00a06 years old again… and\u00a0I’ve just been told that there’s no Santa,\u00a0my puppy\u00a0ran away, and a dozen other events that\u00a0mark the end of childhood.\u00a0 I remember it was a very hard time for everyone.<\/p>\n
One thing I’ve noticed over the past couple of years is 1) a lot of our friends\/family are having kids and 2) some of our friends have\u00a0lost a parent.\u00a0\u00a0It’s a sobering thought for my generation to realize that our parents won’t be around forever… and our heart goes out to our friends who have recently lost theirs.<\/p>\n
So, 15\u00a0years later… it’s gone by so fast.\u00a0\u00a0My Uncle sent out some\u00a0old photos, and with them, some pretty fond memories.\u00a0 It’s clear that everyone misses her as much now, if not more so, as we did 15 years ago.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
When I think back\u00a0to that time,\u00a0I recall all sorts of conversations and odd recollections that shape my memory of her.\u00a0 I can say that they\u00a0are all happy memories… I think the only tinge of sadness is in recalling how much I enjoyed those years and how\u00a0times have changed.<\/p>\n
But, the fact that I’m writing about this means that\u00a0her influence and\u00a0values are very much alive… and I can’t help but to pass them onto my own daughter.\u00a0\u00a0I realize that it’s now my time to\u00a0start a family, and create the environment that made my childhood so memorable… and if\u00a0we’re ever in a tough\u00a0spot,\u00a0E and I can have faith that\u00a0we can get through it because we\u00a0got some pretty good values from our parents and grandparents.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
15 years ago this week, my maternal Grandma\u00a0passed away.\u00a0 I think that was the moment where\u00a0I realized that things\u00a0will never go back to the way they were before. For me growing up,\u00a0it was great being part of a big extended family.\u00a0 Everyone you know and care about has been around for as long as\u00a0you can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/derekandevonne.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/derekandevonne.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/derekandevonne.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derekandevonne.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derekandevonne.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/derekandevonne.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/derekandevonne.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derekandevonne.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derekandevonne.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}