My grandmother "Granny" passed away yesterday morning. This morning we are preparing to make that loooong trip across state. We will stop in Stuart and leave the girls with Tracy's parents and continue on to Galax. We had been anticipating this for so long and I had a list of things to accomplish to ready us for travel so I thought I had everything under control, but yesterday I just walked around like a zombie. I feel so sad...mostly for my mother and grandfather. Today is his birthday.

I never felt like I really new Granny; not like my other grandmother, Makey, who EVERYONE knows. Granny was, and is, a mystery. A tall, cool blonde beauty with a mysterious past, very closed-off and, well, just plain hard to know. Part of me is grieving just that; there are things that no one will ever understand about her now. We were close, though, in her own Granny way. My favorite memory: after her mastectomy she told me she bought a prosthesis that felt like a real breast. We were visiting for Thanksgiving and Tracy and I were newly engaged. Granny kept insisting, "It feels real. Feel it!" I kept replying "I'm not touching my grandmother's breast, even if it is fake!". We went round and round, until I finally gave in. Just at that moment, Tracy walked in the room! I think he wondered what kind of family he was marrying into. Another great memory; going to see Steel Magnolias (one of my faves) with Granny and Mom. We were all weeping, and Granny reached into her purse and starting silently passing tissues down the aisle. The way she did this made us laugh so hard that we cried even more! She had a great sense of humor, and was stronger than I will probably ever understand.

I sat India down yesterday to explain why Mommy was so sad, and why they would be going for a sleepover to Pops and Gigi's. Her obsession with all things Lion King came in handy (India can play 6 degrees of Lion King like nobody's business), as I explained that Granny had died just like Mufasa dies. India thought about this for a while and then asked, "Did Granny fall off a rock, like Mufasa?". This made me smile through my tears and see a little bit of Granny in my little girl.