We love you Grandma!

Yesterday, a light went out in our family.  My Grandma, Beverly Dutson passed away.  I've been thinking about her almost constantly since I heard the news.  I'm so glad that I grew up living so close to her and that my kids got to know their Great-Grandma for a few years.  I've decided to do a post about my memories about my Grandma.

I was born in Delta and lived in Lynndyl (2 blocks from my Grandma) and when I was 3 (-ish), we moved to Provo.  Then when I was in 6th grade we moved back to Lynndyl.  I have lots of memories of visiting from Provo.  I always had to sleep downstairs in her house and it was a spooky house (to a kid)!  The basement had exposed beams & ducts on the ceiling and LOTS of shadows!  I never slept very well there!

When we were younger, a lot of us Grand-kids would be gathered together at Grandma's and we would sing songs around the piano.  Grandma had made us all matching striped shirts.

My Grandma always loved having the grand-kids come over and play games with her.  Her favorite was Skip-Bo.  Every time I play that game I think of her.  She also had a marble game we loved to play.  It's a wooden game that you roll the marbles down and they go back and forth.  She's had it for as long as I can remember, and even my kids play with it every time they go to visit.  This is a pic similar to what it looks like.

My Grandma was a regular for the Schwann's man.  She always bought ice cream from him.  Every time we would go over we would get either a orangesicle or a fudgesicle from her freezer.  My grandma was the first one to teach me how to shuck corn.  When they would do freezer corn, we would sometimes go "help".  She taught me a cool trick to get all the hairs off the corn cob, and now I've taught my kids!

When I was in 7th grade, my Grandma paid for me to take piano lessons.  We didn't have a piano at our house, so I would go practice at her house.  She would also drive me to lessons sometimes, which were very early in the morning.  I remember one time we were driving home and she turned left onto a busy highway.  She accidentally got in the wrong lane and there was a car coming straight for us.  I waited and waited but she didn't move over.  Finally I said "Grandma, you're in the wrong lane".  She moved over and said "Oh, I guess that's why that car is coming straight at us."

Whenever I wanted to earn some extra money, I would go ask my Grandma if she had any jobs I could do for her.  I usually would clean her bathroom.  She taught me how to clean a mirror.  Seriously.  I remember her telling me to look at the mirror not the reflection to see the spots.  I thought that was the coolest thing.

My last memory is one I feel guilty about.  When I was in 8th grade, my other Grandma (who lived in Minnesota) died.  My Grandma was watching all of us while my mom flew out to go to the funeral.  I had a friend that lived a block away, and we had planned to get together at her house that night and have fun.  It was the ONLY time I've ever snuck out.  And I did that to my Grandma!  I've never talked to her about it, but I assume she knew where I'd went.  My friend and I were outside on her tramp talking and my Grandma came looking for me.  I don't remember this, but my friend told me that my Grandma tripped as she was searching for me and got hurt.  I'm sorry Grandma!  I really do feel bad about it.

One of my hobbies is genealogy.  One of the reasons I love it is because I get to learn about people who have lived in a different time & circumstances than what I'm used to.  It amazes me to learn about their lives and how they lived.  A couple years ago, I sat down with my Grandma and sort of interviewed her about what her life was like growing up.  Things were so different back then and I'm so impressed by her life.  When I compare our lives, I feel pampered and greedy, and my life feels boring (not that I'm complaining and need some excitement...).  I just love hearing about how life used to be.

She was born right before the Great Depression.  She told me how her mom would make them clothes out of the sugar/flour sacks because they didn't have money to even buy material.  When she was young (I can't remember how old), she got Scarlet Fever and had to be quarantined and was bed-ridden.  She missed a year of school because of it.  These are 2 examples that we don't really have to worry about.  It just seems so unbelievable to imagine going through that.

My Grandpa & Grandma got married 65 years ago, when my Grandma was 19 years old.  [Just a cool side-note is that a young Elder Spencer W Kimball officiated their sealing.]  They had 9 children together.  The house they raised their family in had 4 rooms.  Total.  There was 1 bedroom for them, 1 bedroom for the girls and the boys slept outside and in the living room.  They had 4 boys in a row, one of which is my dad.  I've heard so many stories about how wild these boys were.  I seriously don't know how my Grandma survived!  She was such a strong lady!

I'm so thankful I got to know my Grandma.  I am inspired by her life and stories.  I am thankful my kids got to know her.   I am thankful for my knowledge that I will see her again and that she is with my Grandpa and other family.  We love you so much Grandma!  You will be missed!

Grandma's 80th Birthday (11/1/2008)

Grandma & Grandpa at Ashlyn's blessing (10/24/2004)

(This was 6 months before Grandpa passed away)

I've really had a hard time finding pictures of her! I know my cousin has a lot of pictures, but her hard drive is frozen up and can't get to them.  My family might have pictures, but they are somewhere in Lynndyl...  Anyways, I was really hoping to have lots of pictures of her in this post, but since that is proving to be difficult, I guess I'll just post this and maybe add more pictures later...