Brian's Grandma

I can't believe it's has been almost two months since my last post. We've been incredibly busy!

Unfortunately, I have some sad news. Last Wednesday, Brian's grandma passed away. She had been in ailing health for quite some time, but it was still quite a shock to everyone. We are flying to Cleveland early Monday morning and staying there until Thursday afternoon. This is one of my favorite pictures of Brian and his grandma that was taken before our rehearsal dinner in May 2006:

We were all really lucky to get to spend a lot of time with G (the nickname that Kevin came up with) in the past few years after she moved down from Cleveland. We saw her about once a week and I know Brian was really excited when he found out that she was moving down here. When we were in college and would plan spring and fall break trips, Brian always made sure to incorporate a stop or an entire visit to Cleveland to see his grandmothers.

I think my favorite memory of G was the first time I met her. Brian and I had been dating for a few months and he invited me to his mom's master's degree graduation party. I was INCREDIBLY nervous because it was the first time I was meeting most of his family and I was driving straight in from Hickory. As I was on the way, Brian called me to tell me to take a different route because the traffic in Chapel Hill was bad. He told me to take [and I quote] "85 to 147 to 40." What he failed to mention was that "147" was a highway (i.e., the Durham Freeway) and not exit 147. So anyway, I got lost (remember I had only lived in Raleigh for like a year and a half and most of that year I was without a car) and was running late and I was incredibly mortified. Because I was coming from Hickory, I was wearing casual clothes and planned to stop to change into something nicer, but I was running so late that I didn't have time to stop, so I ended up changing while I was driving (yes, I realize this was probably not a wise move)!

So, anyway, I finally made it to the party (completely harried) and met Brian's family. (And 11ty thousand of their closest friends--I still meet people who say "oh yeah, I met you at Barb's graduation party." Yeah, I have no memory of any of these people. Sorry.)

Brian plopped me down on the couch next to his grandma and introduced us and then proceeded to abandon me (for the rest of the party). I am not kidding. He and his brother were glued to a radio because the Canes were playing in some playoff game.

G was my savior. She sat on the couch and talked to me the whole time and kept me company. She told me stories about Brian and asked me lots of questions. People would come up and talk to both of us, but fortunately I didn't have to do the whole mingle or stand against the wall alone thing. She was just so incredibly nice.

Interestingly, a few year's later, Brian and I got engaged in her living room in Cleveland after she thwarted Brian's grand-engagement-plan by tagging along with us on a ride to this part of Cleveland where you can see all these cool bridges downtown. :-)