The Walkenhorsts: Saying Goodbye

On January 25th my Grandma passed away. Zara and I had called a day or so before to say goodbye and tell Grandma that we loved her, she told us that she loved us too. I'm grateful that we called even though it was hard because I knew it would be the last time I talked with my Grandma. I'm glad I finally called though. I was grateful for my Aunts who were there and answered the phone and held the phone for my Grandma so that we could have that last moment with her. The funeral service was January 30th. We had breakfast as a family at the hotel. We were all wearing emerald green, my Grandma's favorite color. Zara had an emerald green bow in her hair. My Grandma had asked that all the grand-kids sing Because I Have Been Given Much so we practiced with all the cousins a few times before and we were doing pretty good, emotionally, we were making it through. When it came time to sing the song at the service we all took turns crying. My dad said that a few of us would start crying and then as soon as we pulled ourselves together and started singing another group would start crying. It was amazing to see all of the people that came out to say goodbye to our Grandma. She had an affect on so many peoples life's. The service was beautiful, the words, the flowers, the music. We were all passing the tissue box around. My Grandma was amazing, she had many gifts and talents. I learned a lot of things about my Grandma at her funeral which was neat but also made me feel sad that I didn't know those things before. I was grateful to my Dad who told me that it's "OK" to learn things about people at their funerals. I was able to say goodbye to my Grandma and hold her hand one last time. She looked beautiful and peaceful and her had was soft. Uncle Justin said a beautiful prayer when we were all in the room with Grandma. At the grave we all laid a rose on the casket and spent some time hanging around before we left, it was a cold and wet day or else I think we would have all liked to stay a little longer. It was hard to walk away. We had a wonderful lunch at the church provided by the Relief Society. There were beautiful centerpieces and emerald napkins. We watched a slide show with pictures of Grandma with our family and quotes from all the grand-kids. I think we watched it at least twice. We also were able to take a huge family photo together. There are of course some things about this day that I chose to keep for myself but I wanted to write at least a little summary of this day. I know we are an eternal family but it was still extremely hard to say goodbye.
The next few days the mood was still a little heavy but we were able to have fun and enjoy our time with each other, it had been awhile since we'd all been together! Grandma really liked to have everyone together. We went to Iver's for some yummy fish and chips and chowder. We went to a session at the Seattle Temple with my Grandpa which was great. After the session my parents reenacted some of their favorite poses from their wedding day outside the temple, silly newlyweds. We loved it.

One of my favorite memories with Grandma was when we went on a long car ride with the whole family. I was about 8 or 9 and she sat in the back with us and taught me how to whistle with my hands. She would show me how to place my hands and where to put my mouth to make the sounds, she even explained why it works. It took me forever, hours maybe, to learn but she kept helping me, she was so patient. I was so excited when I finally learned how to make the whistling sound!