Two special memories

I wanted to write these two memories down so that I wouldn't forget them. They both involved the passing of my grandpa.....

First special memory: It was 11:30am on Monday, December 6th. The girls were eating lunch at our dining room table. I had missed a call from my mom and had tried to call her back but she didn't answer. I then called my dad to see if he knew why my mom had called me. When he answered, I asked him if he knew why mom had called and he said "yes.....Grandpa passed away about 30 minutes ago...you mom was calling to tell you"... I immediately started crying. We knew Grandpa was not doing well and the hospice nurse had said the day before that he probably only had about a week left. I had planned on going over there on Wednesday to see him. But now it was too late. He had died so much quicker than they had expected. I got off the phone with my dad and sat down on the living room chair, put my hands over my face and just wept. The girls just sat there for a minute and then started asking..."What's wrong mommy? What's wrong mommy? Why you cryin? What's wrong mommy?"....I looked up at them and simply said, "Mommy's just sad sweet girls, that's all". Gabbie then said, "Mommy, you sad?" and then turned to Jocie and said, "Jocie, mommy sad. Come on..."...She then climbs down from the table and motions for Jocie to come with her. They come over and both give me the biggest hugs ever and said, "we sorry you sad mommy, we help you".....They then proceed to get a pillow and put it behind my back and got their special blankets and covered me up. They would rub my arm and leg and tell me they were sorry that I was sad. They then went and got EVERY single stuffed animal, special toy, etc. etc. that they could find and gave them to me and stuffed them all around me on the chair. After they gave me all their toys they crawled up next to me and patted my leg telling me "that it gonna be ok, mommy". I was still crying alot so Gabbie got up and went to the bathroom and came back with an ENORMOUS amount of toilet paper so I could "wipe my cries". They sat with me and comforted me for two hours. TWO HOURS. They never sit still for that long. They were SO sweet and truly did comfort me as I grieved the loss of grandpa. It was one of those moments that I don't want to ever forget. Such a PRECIOUS memory.

Second special memory: That afternoon the girls and I drove over to be with my family. We went straight to my grandparent's house where all my family was gathered. After we had been there for a bit, the girls needed to go to the potty. You have to walk through my grandpa's bedroom to get to the bathroom and when we walked through his room and saw his bed, Jocelyn asked "where is grandpa?" (a couple of weeks prior we had been there for Thanksgiving and went into grandpa's room to see him. He wasn't able to get out of bed at that point, but the girls and I went to his room several times to see him and talk to him so that is the last place the girls remember seeing grandpa, thus she asked where he was...). I started crying again and said..."well, Grandpa isn't here anymore. He's with Jesus." Without missing a beat, Gabbie immediately looks up at me with a look of excitement and says, "BABY JESUS??!!?"....It was so funny. I smiled and said..."well, uh, yeah... he's with baby Jesus." I was so caught off guard that I didn't know what else to say :) We had been reading the Christmas story about Baby Jesus' birthday for weeks so when I said Grandpa was with Jesus...that's what she thought of....it was so funny and precious. They rest of the day they both kept telling me that grandpa was with baby Jesus....It was a sweet reminder that he was, in fact, with Jesus. Definitely a special memory :)