Brad & Noelle Koosmann & Family: Mom & Dad's Visit and my 31st Birthday

My parents made the trek to Montevideo on Sunday to visit us for a couple of days. They kids got to play with their Papa and Nona, I got some family visiting in, we ate some overcooked beef roast (one day, I will master you, crockpot beef roast...as God is my witness...) and we ended up having their visit cut short by the phone call I've been dreading for the past two years...

On Sunday and Monday, the kids took turns wearing out my parents with their requests for endless playing and reading books. I got a nap! We basically hung out at the house on Sunday and Monday, escaping only to have a quick lunch at McDonalds and a trip to the grocery store. We received a couple inches of snow and when Brad got home from work, they played outside while I visited with my parents. Then we suited up for a late supper at Duffy's to celebrate my 31st birthday the next day. Just as we were ready to get the jackets on the kids, my dad's cell phone rang. Thinking it was my Grandma (because it came from her number), my dad answered as he always did, "Hi Dear!", which was then quickly followed by a slightly puzzled, "Oh...hi..." And my dad stood there like a statue. And that's when I knew. Grandma was gone.

I was completely stunned (or as completely stunned as someone who has an almost-87-year-old grandma can be.) I figured it would be a call about going to the hospital again, followed by rehab in a nursing home. But, instead, Gram passed away in her sleep. It's a comfort to us that it's just the way she wanted to go...without fuss, without added burden to those caring for her, (hopefully) without pain, and without a long, drawn-out process of dying. But no matter how much you know it could be coming, no matter how much it's like what they wanted, it's still gut-wrenching. I was numb for hours afterward...through my parents leaving for the cities...through our throw-together supper and cake for my birthday...through putting the kids to bed...and then the added combo of grief and pregnancy hormones unleashed themselves (poor Brad could just rub my back and hug me...exactly what I needed.) I will miss my Grandma so incredibly much. But I'm also thankful for the times I got to visit with her in the last year. I'm thankful my children got to know their great-grandma (even if it's memories Brad and I will have to keep alive). I'm thankful for the things she taught me. She was a wonderful lady.