my grandma kelly

my grandma kelly passed away last night at the age of 91

as i knew she was close to the end this weekend, i've been thinking a lot about her

she is honestly the mostly saintly person i've ever known

she was a devout catholic and so patient and loving to her 8 children and many grandchildren

one of my favorite things she did was call me "little sister" 

i loved it

and on my birthday she would always recall where she was travelling the day i was born

she also gave me my flat feet and even apologized for that :) 

we lived a few hours away from her so we didn't see her that often growing up

but my ex-husband and i lived in her city for 2 years and i got to be around her more

while i was in hair school she would come get her hair done by me

and would read her prayers while she sat under the dryers 

and would tell me i'm her favorite

this is a picture from about 5 years ago when she turned 87

 this was her 89th birthday party, i believe

 and this was june of 2012

right before we moved to utah

we went to see her one more time at a family reunion

 i'm so glad all four of my children have met her 

and that i got this picture of her holding eleanor

my grandma didn't know until a few years ago whether her first name was barbara or ruth

because her birth certificate was lost in a fire

she went her whole life by barbara but it turns out her first name is actually ruth

anyway, in the hospital when we had eleanor michael told me he knows what we should name our next girl

(assuming our next baby would be a girl) and the name is ruth constance olson

ruth after my grandma (we'll call her ruthie) 

and constance after my mom (it's her first name but she goes by connie)

i loved it

and we still plan on using it if we are carrying a girl

if it happens to be a boy, we'll probably use my grandma's maiden name lyons as the middle name

because i'd love to give her a namesake either way

this has been our plan the whole pregnancy 

whether she was living or not

i love her so much and i will miss her 

but i am glad she isn't suffering anymore (she had a traumatic last 4 months, sadly)

and she can be with all of the loved ones who have already left this earth