Remembering Grandma Gr

My brother Jordan and sisters Brianna and Caytlin lost their maternal grandfather Saturday to Alzheimer's.  All my love and prayers go out to them and their family.  He is in a much better place now, with our Lord Jesus Christ.
Alzheimer's is a terrible disease, I lost my own maternal grandmother, my Grandma Gr, to the disease on May 5, 2009, the day after Jacob was born.  Although that was the day her body finally gave up, I lost her to the disease years before that day.  I guess that's why I didn't cry when I was told she had passed, I was relieved that she could finally have some peace, to be in heaven with her brother and other loved ones that had gone before her.  Alzheimer's is awful, it takes your mind years before your body gives out and I can't imagine living like that.  To see someone you love suffer that way is just heart breaking.  I admit, it was very hard for me to see my grandmother like that, because to me that wasn't her.  In a way, I was mourning her years before the Lord took her.  I have had moments of tears thinking about her, wishing she could have met Matt and our beautiful kids.  I know she would have LOVED Matt, he was her kind of guy and she would have doted over her great grandchildren, just like she did my brother and I.  That's when I really miss her, thinking about what we didn't get to share with her.  While we were going through some boxes in the basement a couple of weeks ago, I found a letter my Grandma Gr had written to me when I moved to Ohio.  I had forgotten about the letter, but it gave me great joy to find and read it, reminding me just how much she loved me, it felt like she was giving me a hug from heaven.  And I just sat and cried for a moment, knowing she's up there, with her mind in tack living it up with her baby brother and her family ... and they are all looking down on us smiling.