This is a picture of my grandmother, my great-grandmother, and my great-grandfather. This was taken in March 1996, just before two of them died. My grandmother (on the left) is still alive...she looks great for being in her early 60's (she's the daughter of the other two in the picture), but the other two (who we always called Mother and Popey...for reasons I'll never know) died the same weekend in late March of 1996. It was really a devastating time for me when they died because I didn't just lose one person who had been in my life ever since I was born, but I lost two people so it was really hard to deal with...but I had to move forward anyway.
Mother (in the middle), whose real name is Maudie, died at age 78, and I remember I found out one day just as I was getting ready for school...that pretty much killed my whole day of school that day. I was like a zombie walking through the hallways...wondering if what news I woke up to that morning was really true. In my mind, it couldn't have been just because she was always there and she would live forever. Then just two days later, Popey (whose real name was Eugene) died...he was 81. They were fantastic people. I truly miss them...deeply.
This is a picture of Mother (my great-grandma). This was taken sometime in July 1995. She was in the hospital for something, but I'm not sure what. She had really bad emphysema for years...from smoking. This was just around the time my Aunt Mary died...but I'm not sure if the look on her face is from that or what. But anyway, this is a picture of my great-grandmother.
This picture is of my Aunt Mary (who is actually my great aunt) and her husband Roger. She was the daughter of my great-grandparents (shown in the above pics). She was my favorite person in the whole world (and still is in many ways). This was taken just before she died (hence that near-death look) in late July 1995. This isn't that great of a picture because it looks like she has teeth missing...but she had perfect teeth...this was just a bad shot. She was always so beautiful, healthy and so full of life...then she all of a sudden found out she had cancer. She went thru chemotherapy but that didn't help. I remember the day I found out that she had died...I was at home and my mom had just left Aunt Mary's house and she walked thru our door and said..."Mary died"...and I was just like "oh, ok." It really didn't dawn on me till later...I was just so numb from it. She is like my guardian angel now...just before she died, she told my mom that she would be my guardian angel...and I believe she is. This is my angel...Mary Alice.
