I was talking to someone about how old Grandma was when she departed and I couldn't remember if she was 97 or 96 so I looked at https://prhmusic.blogspot.com/p/mom.html today to find out.
Showing posts with label Grandma. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Grandma. Show all posts
Saturday, April 23, 2022
16th Anniversary of My Grandma's Next Step on the Journey
Monday, October 15, 2018
Never Before Seen Pictures of my Grandma
After I posted this initially, Susan Simons - my cousin Rick's ex-wife - sent me some additional insight and I updated the captions below.
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| Grandma and Hanna Marie Simons - Jim's granddaughter (he adopted Hanna's dad) the year was 1994 probably about August - In Grandma's kitchen, Grandma fed Hanna chocolate pudding. [Source: Hanna's mother] |
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| Mary's mother (?), Mary, my Uncle Jim, Grandma - January 1980 @ Mary and Jim's wedding - I was there with my parents and brother. I was in 10 years old and would be turning 11 in December 1980. I have no recollection of the wedding. |
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| My Uncle Jim and Hanna Marie Simons 1994 - she was about 2 weeks old and he did not want to hold her so I just forced him too from then on they were inseparable |
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| At my cousin Rick's wedding on November 10, 1990. Far left is Susan's mother - Christa Schaefer, Helen Tucker, Louise Simons, and Mary at the Lutheran Church of the Cross in Chicago - I was there with my parents and brother. |
Friday, July 27, 2018
Tribute
I received this email:
After I watched the video below:
I wrote this back to Conn:
I just released this music video/tribute to my grandfather who died 11/28/2016 and I wanted to share it with you. Thanks for your time, hope you enjoy it🙏
--
IG: @ConnRaney
www.facebook.com/connraney
Twitter: @ConnRaney
After I watched the video below:
I wrote this back to Conn:
I did enjoy it. I was very close to my grandma, who passed away on Apr 23, 2006. I understand what your lyrics are talking about - it feels like Grandma is with me during the things I do every day, both in visible & invisible wa[ys]. Visibly, I am reminded of her every day at work. On my desk, I have an ash tray that I used to play with & spin when I would visit her house – it’s where my keys go each day when I come to my cubicle. Even though my grandfather passed away when I was in kindergarten and I don’t really remember him before he became too sick to get out of bed, I have something of his to remind me each day as well. His last name was “Simons” but I have a gold pen holder in the shape of a railroad spike that he got from his employer – he worked for various railroads in the Midwest region – and on the railroad spike it says “Leo Simmons” – which I think is ironic because it’s a typo & my day job is working as a technical writer – so I’m all about finding & correcting typos. I lost my mother on Dec 29, 2014. I have a page on my blog about both my grandma & my mom on which I wrote my tribute to my mom: https://prhmusic.blogspot.com/p/mom.html
As far as your actual video, it’s kind of funny – I paused Metallica’s “Breadfan” to listen to your video. I wanted you to know that I have been where you are in your grieving process. Sometimes I watch videos from bands and artists and it doesn’t take any effort to dismiss what I heard and move on. After I watched your video, I wrote this email to you and I spent ~15 minutes trying to get the words right, which makes me think of your video where you’re trying to write and the words seem inadequate so you start over – I was like that as I wrote you this email.
I will remember you & your grandfather in my daily prayers.
Monday, April 23, 2018
Tuesday, November 14, 2017
My Grandma's Sense of Humor
Without any doubt in my mind, I believe my grandma would have liked this joke. She would have been 110 today.
In other news, my brother turns 45 today.
In other news, my brother turns 45 today.
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
Special Day
Yesterday was my mom's mom's birthday. I think of her a lot as she was one of many sources that shaped me into the person I am. Karen and I went to a Mexican restaurant called Cactus. Karen got a margarita because Grandma liked to have a margarita on her birthday.
http://www.cedarmemorial.com/Obituary/2006/Apr/Louise-C-Simons/
The following picture is from when she was staying at Hallmar in Mercy Hospital towards the end of her time on earth. In fact, I think it was on her last birthday that this picture was taken. She passed away on April 23, 2006. Though she shared her birthday with my brother, I always felt extremely close to her. She started me on the path of loving music - review of the first ever member of my music collection - and for that I will always think of her with a fondness that cannot be described in words.
She was my friend and I miss her.
http://www.cedarmemorial.com/Obituary/2006/Apr/Louise-C-Simons/
Friday, November 14, 2014
This Great Lady is Missed
Sometimes, the thought of being able to see my grandma in heaven is enough to make the right choice when, perhaps, the wrong choice would be easier. November 14th is her birthday and today, in 2014, Grandma would have been 106.
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Eight Years Have Passed
Grandparents were not really a big part of my life. On my father's side, my Grandpa Hanson was in a nursing home and passed away in the early 1980s. I vaguely remember at least one visit to a nursing home. I know I was at his funeral, but it's funny that what I remember the most about his death is that my mom took Mark and I to Younker's to buy us each a suit for his funeral. I never knew my Grandma Hanson.
So, the only grandparent I had in my life was my mother's mom, Louise Simons. Her husband, Leo, passed away in 1976, when I was in kindergarten. I remember hearing stories about how I would sit on his lap and he'd tell a story about the "moo moo cow" going away and I'd cry, but then the "moo moo cow" would come back and I'd laugh. Whatever that means. So after Leo passed away, Grandma went on to live by herself for another 30 years. For most of those years, she lived by herself. If she were alive today, it would be her 105th birthday today. Sadly, she passed away on April 26, 2006. My brother Mark shares her birthday - he is 41 - but I'm thinking more about Grandma today. I shared the following words, slightly edited, at her wake:
I'd like to share with you a couple of reflections on how her life influenced my life and what knowing her means to me. It's an understatement that she was a very positive influence in my life. I was always close to her. I always viewed her as a strong person. I remember that when I was younger, she would babysit me on Saturday nights. We'd go to 4 PM Mass at All Saints, then go to her house for dinner. We'd have mac and cheese with hot dogs. For dessert, we'd have lime sherbet and Hershey's chocolate syrup.
I always saw Grandma's faith as a model for my own walk with Christ. I can't count the number of hours we spent in church together in addition to the Saturday nights she'd watch me. We always went to Christmas Eve Mass and she kept her bible on the kitchen table. Her faith was a model for me and I will never forget that.
After Grandma went to Hallmar, she was still always trying to care for me. I would visit during lunch hour and when I arrived, she'd be in the cafeteria eating. She would always ask if I wanted any of her meal and I would usually fib and say, 'no, I'm not hungry.' Sometimes she'd try and take something from someone else's tray to give to me. On other visits, we'd sit in her room. While we looked out her window, I would hold her shaking hand.
She was always feisty. One time when I was leaving, I told her she needed to stay out of trouble. She looked me square in the eyes and said, "You ask for the impossible." When the nurses would give her pill, she'd put it in her mouth and fake that she had swallowed it, then she'd turn to me and show me that she still had the pill on her tongue.
When Grandma broke her hip, Karen and I stayed with her a night in the hospital. She drifted in and out of consciousness. In the middle of the night, she bellowed:
Be at my side,
To light and guard,
To rule and guide.
At the top of her lungs.
There was always a twinkle in her eye, even when she was not doing so hot. The very next night, when I went to visit her, a nurse came in. She said to Grandma, "Louise, I'm going to put an IV in you and this is going to poke a little." When the needle touched her skin, Grandma jerked her arm away from the nurse and said, "Hey! Don't do that!" The first nurse called a second nurse. The first nurse held the needle, the second nurse held Grandma's left hand and I held her right. The first nurse said again, "Louise, this is going to poke a bit." This time, when the needle touched the skin, Grandma couldn't move her left arm and she couldn't move her right arm so she tried to spit at the nurses.
One special part of my life that Grandma and I shared was music. She bought me my first cassette tape in 1980. Nearly 4000 CDs and tapes later, I think it is fitting that I heard this song I'm about to play for you just today. It's a song that describes someone longing for the waiting to be over, to join Christ in heaven. The lyrics that stick out when I hear this song are as follows. I think of the conversation Grandma was having with Christ during the last days of her glorious life.
Then I played a song by Chris Rice entitled "Smile."
To say I miss Grandma is an understatement. I have converted some College Tapes to MP3 and so I can hear her voice, literally. It makes me really happy to hear her voice. Another way that she is always present in my day to day life is within the name of the band I play drums in. The name of the band is Lou's Classic Ride. There are three people named Lou that influenced that name.
So, the only grandparent I had in my life was my mother's mom, Louise Simons. Her husband, Leo, passed away in 1976, when I was in kindergarten. I remember hearing stories about how I would sit on his lap and he'd tell a story about the "moo moo cow" going away and I'd cry, but then the "moo moo cow" would come back and I'd laugh. Whatever that means. So after Leo passed away, Grandma went on to live by herself for another 30 years. For most of those years, she lived by herself. If she were alive today, it would be her 105th birthday today. Sadly, she passed away on April 26, 2006. My brother Mark shares her birthday - he is 41 - but I'm thinking more about Grandma today. I shared the following words, slightly edited, at her wake:
I'd like to share with you a couple of reflections on how her life influenced my life and what knowing her means to me. It's an understatement that she was a very positive influence in my life. I was always close to her. I always viewed her as a strong person. I remember that when I was younger, she would babysit me on Saturday nights. We'd go to 4 PM Mass at All Saints, then go to her house for dinner. We'd have mac and cheese with hot dogs. For dessert, we'd have lime sherbet and Hershey's chocolate syrup.
I always saw Grandma's faith as a model for my own walk with Christ. I can't count the number of hours we spent in church together in addition to the Saturday nights she'd watch me. We always went to Christmas Eve Mass and she kept her bible on the kitchen table. Her faith was a model for me and I will never forget that.
After Grandma went to Hallmar, she was still always trying to care for me. I would visit during lunch hour and when I arrived, she'd be in the cafeteria eating. She would always ask if I wanted any of her meal and I would usually fib and say, 'no, I'm not hungry.' Sometimes she'd try and take something from someone else's tray to give to me. On other visits, we'd sit in her room. While we looked out her window, I would hold her shaking hand.
She was always feisty. One time when I was leaving, I told her she needed to stay out of trouble. She looked me square in the eyes and said, "You ask for the impossible." When the nurses would give her pill, she'd put it in her mouth and fake that she had swallowed it, then she'd turn to me and show me that she still had the pill on her tongue.
When Grandma broke her hip, Karen and I stayed with her a night in the hospital. She drifted in and out of consciousness. In the middle of the night, she bellowed:
Be at my side,
To light and guard,
To rule and guide.
At the top of her lungs.
There was always a twinkle in her eye, even when she was not doing so hot. The very next night, when I went to visit her, a nurse came in. She said to Grandma, "Louise, I'm going to put an IV in you and this is going to poke a little." When the needle touched her skin, Grandma jerked her arm away from the nurse and said, "Hey! Don't do that!" The first nurse called a second nurse. The first nurse held the needle, the second nurse held Grandma's left hand and I held her right. The first nurse said again, "Louise, this is going to poke a bit." This time, when the needle touched the skin, Grandma couldn't move her left arm and she couldn't move her right arm so she tried to spit at the nurses.
One special part of my life that Grandma and I shared was music. She bought me my first cassette tape in 1980. Nearly 4000 CDs and tapes later, I think it is fitting that I heard this song I'm about to play for you just today. It's a song that describes someone longing for the waiting to be over, to join Christ in heaven. The lyrics that stick out when I hear this song are as follows. I think of the conversation Grandma was having with Christ during the last days of her glorious life.
Then I played a song by Chris Rice entitled "Smile."
To say I miss Grandma is an understatement. I have converted some College Tapes to MP3 and so I can hear her voice, literally. It makes me really happy to hear her voice. Another way that she is always present in my day to day life is within the name of the band I play drums in. The name of the band is Lou's Classic Ride. There are three people named Lou that influenced that name.
- My father-in-law's name is Lou and he always talks about the classic cars he used to own.
- Joe's ex-father-in-law served blacks at his diner when that wasn't being done.
- Lou is short for Louise. Grandma made drum cases out of denim for me and I still have them. She also helped clean my cymbals at least once in my parent's basement tub sink. I remember she went to mass at St. Pius when I used to play with their music group during my senior year of high school into my freshman year of college. And, as I mentioned above, she bought my first cassette (the Xanadu soundtrack). The story behind that is that my mom said I could get a record, which was a few bucks, but I ended up with the Xanadu soundtrack instead. I think I was supposed to pay Grandma back the difference, but I also don't think she ever accepted the money. Back when this was happening in 1980, cassettes were between $10 - $12 and a 45 RPM record was between $4 -$6.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Purging a bit... and two Deaths
Before I get to the title of this post, I did have my meeting with my (cool) manager and it went well. We talked for 2.5 hours and discussed my work, my progress in certain areas, and where I need to improve. One of her recurring themes is that I need to figure out what others can do to help me because I can't do it all. I have 6 weeks of work on my desk and even more en route, including the 9 systems I talked about in my previous post. So there is a lot on my plate and a lot of things that need to get done. I really think that my job is not going to slow down anytime soon. One of the things I like is that I was able to map out when I am going to work on things. I know that I will have next week to get through as many doc changes as I can. After that, I will have 2.5 days the week of Thanksgiving to do user interface design. Coming back from Thanksgiving, I am giving myself two days to finish that UI design work. Then Wed-Friday, I have to uncomment some doc changes I made for a project that was slated for the release we just shipped out but then got delayed to the next release. By that Friday - the day after I turn 39 - I need to have all my doc changes done and any doc changes that I need to do for other projects have to be small changes - no massive projects can be undertaken because by 12/12, the cut should be made and by 12/15, I should be prepping for the Early Release CDs. Somewhere in there, I'll get the 9 new systems and I will still have additional projects to work on that are unrelated to those 9 new systems. The number I threw out today was that if those 9 new systems have 100 screens each, that's 900 new help topics to write. I hope it is not even close to that many help topics. About 450, or half of the 900, would even be a lot to work with and, I guess, right now, I haven't seen enough to have a feel for what I am going to have to deal with when these systems arrive on my desk.
Now... onto the purging and deaths in my life today.
First, the purge. I have a Hotmail account. I have 20 pages of e-mails in my Inbox, dating back to March of 2008. I have 500 messages. My goal is to purge my messages until I am down to 25. In order to do that, I am (probably) going to be including a lot of links to version websites in my blog so that I have some sort of record regarding links that I, at one point, thought were pretty cool. In a brief survey of some of the messages, I noticed links to freeware sites. There will probably be all kinds of other things as well.
According to Cal Thomas, a political writer, there was a death with the election of Barack Obama - the death of the religious right. I am Catholic. I believe in God and I believe in making good choices because that, after all, separates a man from a beast. Thus, this is the link to Thomas' article: http://www.calthomas.com/index.php?news=2419
The other recent death in my life is my grandma. She died on April 23, 2006. Today, 11/14/08, she would have been 100. I miss her. A lot. I think I probably have written about our connection in the past and just to say it again, I still feel our connection. Our lives were woven together. I credit her with starting my music collection: http://www.dailyvault.com/toc.php5?review=5202. I still use the red drumstick holder she made for me. It is tied to the lugs of my floor tom. I stilll have some of the denim drum cases she made for me. I also remember her coming to watch me play drums at Mass @ St. Pius X in Cedar Rapids. There are all these memories that surround us and make me smile - not sad - when I think of her. I remember her daily when I get into the 1992 Oldsmobile Achieva I bought from her for $5 when she was no longer going to drive. So, today is her 100th birthday. I'm sure she's up with my grandfather, Leo, and our white toy poodle, D.D. (Damn Dog), having a blast. My Uncle Jim is up there as well. My hope, as a good person on Earth, is that I get to end up with them as well.
So that is the game plan - purging my Inbox of 500 messages. Onward...
Now... onto the purging and deaths in my life today.
First, the purge. I have a Hotmail account. I have 20 pages of e-mails in my Inbox, dating back to March of 2008. I have 500 messages. My goal is to purge my messages until I am down to 25. In order to do that, I am (probably) going to be including a lot of links to version websites in my blog so that I have some sort of record regarding links that I, at one point, thought were pretty cool. In a brief survey of some of the messages, I noticed links to freeware sites. There will probably be all kinds of other things as well.
According to Cal Thomas, a political writer, there was a death with the election of Barack Obama - the death of the religious right. I am Catholic. I believe in God and I believe in making good choices because that, after all, separates a man from a beast. Thus, this is the link to Thomas' article: http://www.calthomas.com/index.php?news=2419
The other recent death in my life is my grandma. She died on April 23, 2006. Today, 11/14/08, she would have been 100. I miss her. A lot. I think I probably have written about our connection in the past and just to say it again, I still feel our connection. Our lives were woven together. I credit her with starting my music collection: http://www.dailyvault.com/toc.php5?review=5202. I still use the red drumstick holder she made for me. It is tied to the lugs of my floor tom. I stilll have some of the denim drum cases she made for me. I also remember her coming to watch me play drums at Mass @ St. Pius X in Cedar Rapids. There are all these memories that surround us and make me smile - not sad - when I think of her. I remember her daily when I get into the 1992 Oldsmobile Achieva I bought from her for $5 when she was no longer going to drive. So, today is her 100th birthday. I'm sure she's up with my grandfather, Leo, and our white toy poodle, D.D. (Damn Dog), having a blast. My Uncle Jim is up there as well. My hope, as a good person on Earth, is that I get to end up with them as well.
So that is the game plan - purging my Inbox of 500 messages. Onward...
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