Honey

This is my Grandma - Grandma Honey. You can call her Grandma Honey or Honey but no one knows her real name. Truly, if she used it people would say, "who is that?"

She loved us. She loved boating. She loved children - babies were her FAVORITE though. She love doing things for others to make them happy. She didn't have a happy childhood. Her mother passed away when she was very young and the woman her father married later was very unkind to her. I think she wanted to make sure we had the most fun always - and always felt loved - she did a GREAT job of that!

When we were little she lived with Grandpa Honey in Portland Oregon. I loved the smell of her house and the fun things that were in it including a spinning wheel (it wasn't real but it really did spin - and we were good at making it go) I think it was actually a lamp base. I remember laying in bed at their house and hearing Grandpa's TV broadcasting news or a sports program. We didn't have TV in my house until I was in school and so it was novel and fun to fall asleep to the sound of the TV. Even now when I hear the TV when I am in bed it reminds me of the fun of visiting Grandpa and Grandma Honey.

I remember visiting her around Christmas time when I was a really small girl. She had a Santa and Mrs. Clause bobble-head set. They had magnets on their lips so if you put them close enough their little heads would bob around and around and then SMACK - they would be kissing. I loved those two! My mom kept them at her house when Grandma passed - but I have my eye on them!!!

Grandma moved to our town after Grandpa Honey passed away. I don't remember if it was 1986 or 1987 when she finally moved but I do remember than things changed. Instead of being the Grandma that we got to see once or twice a year, she was the Grandma who came to all of our activities and games and spent the Holidays and Birthdays - she was the sign of fun! I remember her Swiss Steak and her spaghetti. She made green salad better than anyone I know - she used green onions and green peas among other things. I loved her Copper Penny Salad and Pei Mei. Every Christmas and Thanksgiving she made Jello Ribbon Salad.

Wherever we would go people would tell her how beautiful she was - and they were right. Her hair was CLASSIC! She loved beads and lipstick and perfume and she even wore sandals on her little hurting feet (until we got in the house - then she wore KEDS - but they always were a matching color to her outfit).

One of my favorite things was that she would always stay the night on Christmas eve. She would put on her silky hair bonnet and her long dark purple velour "house coat" and sleep on the couch - making sure none of us had an unauthorized "early" Christmas surprise. Now, when it is Christmas morning and I see my empty couch - I miss that lady. What a wonderful person. How blessed am I to get to be her granddaughter~How much I will miss her this Christmas!