Thanksgiving

As fall is coming in, my thoughts turn to Thanksgiving and our family traditions. This year we lost the person who was, to me at least, the founder of our family. My grandmother, my Daddy's Mama, my Gussie, passed away July 10th of this year. She wasn't sick, she was just old. Ninety four years and 10 months old to be exact. She was ready to go, and so she told me every day of her last year. I had been her caregiver for the last 9 or 10 years of her life. Helping out with her DR's appointments and medications. Cleaning her house and helping with the grocery shopping. Driving her on her errands and just spending time with her. She was the joy of my life. She made me laugh too many times to count. 

Her name was Gussie Violet Riley. 

She liked to tell people that she was the flower of the family......... the bloomin' idiot. 

I loved her beyond measure. 

The LO below is one I have recently done of Thanksgiving day 2007. That was the year that my Daddy passed away from pancreatic cancer. Gussie was particularly blue that year ~ he was her baby. Gussie always said the blessing at our family dinners.  Everyone had to be in a circle, even if it wasn't round, holding hands, before she would start. And the food could get cold before she was done blessing everyone some days. But that was our tradition.

I hope that your family is taking the time to stop and look around at the times spent with those who are so important to us all, and these times that mean so much. Bless us all.