Grandma Hemingway

Unfortunately, last Tuesday Tim's Grandma Hemingway passed away. She had been ill for awhile and we got a chance to visit her a few days before she died. We also were lucky enough to get some pictures of Chase with her before she passed. We attended the funeral on Saturday and as the speakers got up and spoke, the only thing I kept thinking was "What an amazing woman". I knew Grandma Hemingway for only a short time but she made a strong impact on me as someone who is always positive, who shares her love with everyone, who is always purposefully working towards some good. The amount of genealogy work she did is astounding. She served multiple missions. She was also a teacher which makes her close to my heart.

I was grateful that the funeral was conducted in a spirit of celebration of her life. Tim's cousins Lisa and Levi gave great talks of 'celebration', and his sister Jannifer did as well. I think it was great for the family to remember all of the wonderful things about their grandmother and to be able to laugh at things she had said or done. I will share one quick story from the funeral that Levi told.

Grandma Hemingway has always bottled her own peaches, pears, cucumbers, tomatoes, and all sorts of other fruits and vegetables and stored them in her house. One day Levi was eating lunch at his grandparents and he heard an explosion from the laundry room. He got up to go see what had happened and saw liquid on the floor, so he thought the washer was leaking. He thought, "I better call Uncle Mike to fix it, and my mom to clean it up!" (This is how things work in the Hemingway family- Tim's dad fixes everything, and Aunt Flora cleans everything up). So he put some towels on the liquid and went back to lunch. When he was done he went back to check, and saw even more liquid on the floor. He started looking around and in the food storage he happened to find a can of peaches that was bulging. So he found Grandma Hemingway and he said, "Grandma I think this can of peaches has gone bad" to which she responded, "I can't imagine why it would do that now, it has been in there for years!"

The funeral was a good experience as we celebrated the life of an amazing woman, and were able to say goodbye to her for awhile. The funeral started out with more tears than probably Tim would care to admit, (Why was Becky the only one to bring tissues? Smart girl. We love you Becky!) however, by the end, we left with a feeling of peace and contentment knowing that in another place many people were rejoicing to have Grandma Hemingway back with them.

Here is a link to Grandma Hemingway's obituary if you would like to read it.
http://www.legacy.com/DeseretNews/Obituaries.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonId=108239902

We love you Grandma Hemingway!!!

-Tim & Katie