Sadly, my Granny passed away unexpectedly at 91 (and 3/4) years old. My Grandparents had just celebrated their 66th wedding anniversary together.

She was able to be surrounded by family at the end, and that is such a lovely thing, especially at a time where that's not always possible due to the world trying to keep a handle on COVID cases.  With all the travel bans and 14 day quarantines in place, I wasn't able to go home for the funeral - although I did entertain the idea for a few days. I was able to call and listen on speaker phone (I put myself on mute) to the tiny grave side service, just 10 people due to COVID restrictions which came out the day before. I'm so glad I was able to call. I set my alarm and got up in the middle of the night alone to do so, but it really felt like I was there. I used head phones and I could hear very clearly.

Even though it's already been a few weeks, just everything reminds me of Granny right now. I'm just really missing such a wonderful lady and terribly sad that I didn't get to see her again after we moved to Singapore. We had so intended to go back home to visit before now.

When I say everything reminds me of her, I mean almost completely unrelated things remind me of her. I ate a really hipster smoked salmon salad for lunch yesterday at a table on the sidewalk of a busy narrow street of historic shop houses in Singapore - a place Granny would never have been, eating food she would never have considered ordering, but it had whole baby tomatoes in it - reminding me of how Granny hated tomatoes.

When I lived with her as a young adult, she would to tell me that she did not like tomatoes, because of the year when she was a kid, when the harvest was so bad on their little farm in Saskatchewan, that all they had to eat was tomatoes. They ate tomatoes at every meal; she told me they even had tomatoes with cream for breakfast.

Later the kids were playing with play dough. Granny made us so much play dough when we were little. Homemade playdough, still warm from the pot, is just the best thing ever. I've really got to make her recipe for the kids. Oddly, I can't locate cream of tartar here.

We were drinking our tea and MsE handed me the story Green Eggs and Ham. I could hardly read it as I though of all the times Granny read it to me in the spare bedroom. I wondered where this beat up version in my house even came from. Was it Granny's? Maybe it's a childhood copy of Jonathan's?

I feel so blessed to have had such a lovely Granny. I have so many lovely memories of her, and spent so much time with her - as a child and as an adult too.

Her absences leaves such a large hole, in our extended family.  I can't imagine her house without her, but right now, I'd just really like to be drinking a cup of tea with her in her kitchen. She would pat my hand and tell me it will get easier, dear.

Obituary: Vera May (née Richmond) McClanaghan Feb. 9, 1929 - Nov. 9, 2020