"One Butt Kitchen"

My Grandma Ada is my hero. She has always been my hero. When I am faced with a decision, I try to pattern them after what she would do. She is an optomist and that is what makes her so wonderful. There are no strangers in her life, only friends she hasn't met yet. In my life, I can't think of a time she turned anyone in need away. It didn't matter if they were family or not. Everytime I would see her she would squeal, throw her arms open and proceed to kiss all over my face while telling me hello and how glad she was that I was there. I would love to say that experience was unique to me, but that is the welcome we all got. I knew that she loved others, but she made me feel like she loved me best. I suppose all her knew her would say the same thing. Love is something she gives away freely.

Education is extremely important to her and her love of learning was instilled in her at a young age. She is from a family of educators and she tried hard to support anyone she could in their educational endevours. She was herself an educator at Southern Utah University for years. She worked in the Home Education Department and was really good at it. I use to love it when she would take me down to see her classrooms. I have always wanted to follow in her footsteps, and as a mother I suppose I have in many ways. She was progressive before it was a buzz word and set an amazing example for what a strong woman should be.

Those of us fortunate enough to call her Grandma (or Aunt respectively) have known a lifetime of hugs and kisses, abundant food and lots of laughter. I remember in my youth helping her in her kitchen. Helping Grandma in the kitchen was very special time for me. We all congregated there, it was the heart of her home. One time we had so many of us in her kitchen, she laughed and reminded us that she only had a "one butt kitchen". So some of us had to take our butts elsewhere in the house.

I love visiting Grandma and Grandpa's house because we got to eat whatever our favorite cereal was. My mom had to buy the healthy stuff because that was the responsible thing to do. But Grandma's get to spoil their grandchildren. Eating cold cereal at Grandma's house was an adventure because you never knew what you were going to get out of a particular box. There was no guarantee Lucky Charms were in the Lucky Charms box. Usually it was a combination of several other cereals that only had a little left in their boxes. The combination was weird but we grew to accept it. I can now eat just about any combination of cereal with very little gag reflex.

My Grandma taught me how to can apricot jam. If she didn't have something in her garden she knew where to get it. We would just show up at a particular location and pick all we could with the permission of the homeowners. That year it was apricots. Jacob was just 2 years old and he had a fabulous time picking and eating all his little body could handle. She would store the canned goods in her basement cold storage room. I have had a love/hate relationship with the storage room over the years. Even as an adult I was scared to go down there. When I was a kid she would announce what we were eating for dinner and ask one of her grandchildren to venture down to the basement storage room to fetch it. It was at the end of a long room that had Grandpa Bert's yard tools hanging on the walls looking very scary. Every horror movie I have ever seen had a room that looked like that in it. After quickly getting to the end of the tool room, I would open the door and have to enter the pitch black storage room and try reach the long piece of string hanging directly in the middle of the air. It was attached to a single exposed lightbulb to illuminate the room and I would try to asess how far it was before the door would shut behind me . There I would be, frantically searching in the dark for the string. I was terrified to be in the dark and sure that something horrible was going to be in there in the room with me when I finally found the string and pulled. Thankfully nothing was ever there but Ada's yummy home canned food.

Grandma and Grandpa's house was always fun, and they even had a money chair. Every house should have a money chair. They had this recliner that would put anyone sitting in it in the perfect position to relieve them of the change in their pockets. The money chair was raided regularly so that we could go up to the store and get a candy bar. I wonder if Ada and Bert just put all of their loose change in the chair to give us a thrill as kids. I am not sure who ended up with the money chair, but if you have it you may want to check out what is under the cushions. A trip to Dairy Queen may be in your future.

Grandma Ada's days in this world are short. I have so many more memories that I would love to share but lack the room to write them all. I could fill a book. I am blessed for having known her and can't imagine my world without her in it. At one point in my life I suppose I expected she would live forever. She has certainly left her mark on this world and even though I have to say goodbye soon, I am so happy she gets to be reunited with Bert and her family again. I am sure he has been waiting patiently for her to finish talking to everyone so that they can go.