Grandma Patricia

My Grandma Patricia is 85 years old and lives in a nursing home.  She has been without Grandpa Richard for seven years.  Grandma Patricia has 10 kids, just like my Grandma Maxine, but whereas Grandma Maxine had mostly boys, Grandma Patricia had mostly girls—seven, in fact.  My Dad was Grandma Maxine’s oldest child and my mom was Grandma Patricia’s oldest child.  

Grandma Patricia and Grandpa Richard also spent most of their married life moving from place to place trying to earn a living to support their family.  Grandpa Richard was a mechanic.  Unlike Grandma Maxine and Grandpa Devar who only owned one house, and settled in it for good, Grandma Patricia and Grandpa Richard owned a few houses in the day, but never really settled down for long. 

I loved going to Grandma Patricia’s house when they lived near us.  It was a house full of teenagers.  At almost every visit I would ask my aunties, “do you have anything to give me?”  Then they would dig in their drawers and give me bottles of old, sticky fingernail polish, and other cast-off make up.  

At one point, Grandpa and Grandma owned a house in St. George Utah which was such a fun place!  We’d go to Judd’s candy store, explore the underground caves, play on the sand dunes, tube the canal, and squeeze through the narrows.  It was truly a place of adventure!   How I wish they had never sold that house and moved away.

I learned a lot about family from Grandma Patricia as I watched her gather us all together for holidays, birthdays, and family gatherings.  She worked hard to make everyone feel welcome and  to “love them into the family,” as she would say.  That’s definitely a saying I want to live by!