Memories of Grandma Jolley

We were saddened this week to lose Brandon's Grandma Jolley. Brandon and I lived in her basement apartment for three years. During that time I was able to get to know Grandma and I have many fond memories of her.
The first thing that always comes to my mind which isn't really that surprising if you know me is the amazing food that she would make. She was always trying out new recipes and we were the willing volunteers when it came to tasting them. She made all kinds of breads and the house would smell warm and comforting as we would come home from work. She taught me how to make pizza and always made extra copies for me of the recipes that she liked. She had a huge collection of cookbooks that she'd let me borrow. As a new wife I was always running upstairs to borrow spices and ask advice. After I started to get better I would take my food for her to taste and she seemed to be proud of my progress. We also spent a lot of evenings, especially while Grandpa was alive and refused to sleep watching Alton Brown on Food Network.
She also introduced me to HG TV where we dreamed about all the improvements that could be made in her house and in our apartment. It wasn't until we left that she actually got to see some of those dreams come true.
I appreciated Grandma's yard, which is where we had our wedding reception and where I spent many summer afternoons because the Central Air inside made our basement feel like we were living in an icebox. When she was out watering her plants Brandon would always ask her about the different varieties and she always knew the answers. She loved that yard and she did everything she could to make it beautiful.
I enjoyed watching Grandma and Brandon talk because he could always get her giggling. Once she started it would escalate into a silly mood. He would tease her about her old hockey days because she had a couple of fake teeth in a partial that she would take out at night. He would tell me that she got hit by a puck and she would pretend like she didn't love his teasing. He also always tried to catch her saying "warsh" instead of "wash" but she would deny it every time.

I liked to talk to her too because she always knew the news about everyone in the family. There are family members that probably don't even know who I am, but I know all about what is going on in their lives. She knew about every single person and what they were up to. I thought it was pretty neat that she had such an interest in every single person in the family.

When Rocky was born Grandma showered her with love. She would wrap her in a blanket and snuggle with her. Because I was such a new mother it was always reassuring that I had an expert in the same house.

Grandma's house will never be the same without her, but I will always think of it, as it was, with gratitude and love.