Oh man.....today has been a tough day. It has actually been a tough couple of weeks. The year 2020 started out with such promise....a couple of weddings......and then BAM things started to come apart. The Corona virus is not even the worst thing that has happened. Today Kendall's mom Shirley passed away. She suffered an injury a few weeks ago and she went downhill fast. I am so happy for her...she has been suffering with the affects of dementia for many years. It has been really hard on her and her family. I am so glad that she no longer has to suffer with it anymore....but man are we all going to miss her like crazy.I met Shirley 29 years ago. She instantly loved me simply because I loved her son. We had a lot in common. I think that Shirley loved babies as much as I do.....I know that seems impossible because I love me some babies....but she felt the same way. We actually both had/have daycares in our homes. Kendall is so lucky because he has been around babies his whole life! Not only did she run a daycare, but she was also a foster mom and loved babies all day and night...those babies never went home and she always had the day shift, night shift and weekends care for them. I guess her love of babies might trump mine, but I suppose I come in a close second. We could talk about babies forever and she loved to look at the pictures of the Little's I watch and wanted to know all about them.
Shirley also loved to cook. Now she was a serious cook because she wore a apron. She was super classy like that. Like June Cleaver. She could make a mean Shepard's Pie, Chicken Salad sandwich's that my kids mouths salivate when they think about it. Corn Chowder that Kendall could eat the whole pot. She was a master at Jell-O Salads and had a arsenal that she could whip up . She was a master baker and made a delicious Butterfinger pie and an amazing better than you know what cake....but her claim to fame was her Apple pie. Did you know that she was a local celebrity? Before I met Kendall she was featured on the local PBS station and showed the eastern part of Idaho how to make apple pie. She made the crust and said that you just know its right by the feel. Is your Mother-in-Law famous??? Well mine was! She also gave me my sugar cookie recipe....we all know how amazing those babies are! She did have a few culinary flaws.....her corn beef and cabbage....EWW the corn beef was ok...but Kendall says that cabbage was slimy and gross. Now me and Kendall differ on this last one but her spam sandwich...boo...I don't ever need another of those but Kendall says they were awesome! Shirley loved salt. She would salt everything. Everything always needed more salt. My kids got a kick out of her salting her potato chips!
Shirley also loved to pose for pictures. I have seen a lot of pictures of her she would stand up straight, hands to her side and bring one foot out slightly in front of her. I am pretty sure she was Grandpa's favorite subject to shoot pictures of. I have seen pictures of her modeling outfits. Pictures of her show off a culinary confection. Pictures of Shirley and her flowers. Pictures of her and her babies and grandkids.
Shirley also cared about her appearance. She actually had the same hairstyle for the entire time I knew her. She had a appointment every week at the hairdresser and she would get her hair done up for the week. I was under the impression that she never colored her hair and was one of the lucky few who's hair never when gray or white.....I found out different in the last few weeks of her life...she had me fooled. Shirley was a lover of blue eye shadow. I left that color behind in the nineties, but it was her go to color and it looked great on her. She also never was without lipstick. She was lover of Avon and she also loved the Clinique and Este Lauder deals in department store.
Shirley loved to read. She actually introduced me to the LDS romance novels. She had a library full of them. I read a bunch of them during the last few weeks of my pregnancy with Dyllon. She also loved to read the Idaho State Journal. She read it every day. They are one if the few people I know on this earth that still have the paper delivered to their home daily.
She loved to watch baseball on TV. When I first met her she rooted for the Atlanta Braves....but a few years back she had to convert to the Colorado Rockies because the Braves games were no longer shown in Pocatello. I will also fill you in on a dirty little secret.....she loved soap operas. I mean what else was there to watch on regular TV during naptime? It wasn't her fault...it just happened.
I also loved the way that Grandma Shirley gave hugs lately. She would grab your face in her hands and press her forehead to hers. So sweet! During here last few years it was hard for her to remember things, her mind locked things away from her, but it seemed like she could always remember at least one thing about you. Take Aushlynn for example..... Shirley knew that she had served a mission and every time she saw here she asked her.. "how many did you get?" She was also genuinely surprised every time that she saw Kendall and realized that he was bald. He would have to go over to her so she could inspect his head. In her mind she pictured him as a little boy! She would also always ask me where I lived....I would tell her South Jordan and she would say...oh, I have a daughter-in-law that lives there.
Shirley was an amazing Wife, Mom and Grandma! It is so hard that this Corona virus scare has made the last few weeks of her life difficult to share with her. Because we can't gather in groups of more than 10 people... we can't have a funeral for her right now and that just plain stinks. We can't sit around as a family and tell stories and share memories and that just is not fair!
I am going to miss her so much! I love you Shirley!
