Packin' it up

Tuesday we hopped a flight with my Mom and Guy to Florida. We had a little trouble with our first flight being canceled, but we were able to get the next one without issue. We made it to Okeechobee just after 5 p.m. and headed to the Sheriff's station to collect Grams' belongings. Unfortunately the Sheriff's admin department closed at 5. They were nice enough to come back in after they'd left for the day to give us all that we needed to get into Grams' house. I was really impressed by that. It was so eerie to be in my Grams' house without her there. It was so quiet. Grams was really never quiet. She was always doing something i.e. making ice. HaHa. :) I had quite the break down when we first got there. The sheer fact that Grams was not home was just too much for me to take. We left there and went to get dinner. After dinner Jackson, Mom and I headed back to Grams' to assess what needed to be done the next day. We were overwhelmed.

I started by cleaning out a cabinet in the dining area. It turned out to be full of photo albums. My Mom and I spent most of the evening walking down memory lane. I'm so thankful that I was able to go there and have that time. I needed it. I needed to feel close to Grams even though she'd gone to her Heavenly home. Side note: no wonder Grams loved me- I was the cutest little girl ever. Goodness. (Humble, too!) ;)

Wednesday came and Guy, Jackson and I got to work. Mom had a lot of legal things to deal with around town so we sent her on her way and got to work on Grams' place. We were really hoping to get everything handled in the one trip instead of making another journey to Florida in the near future. By the grace of God, we were successful. It was amazing how quickly we were able to pack up their home. Jackson and I agreed to drive Grams' car home so we packed it full of a lot of her things and donated a lot, too.

A very strange thing happened when we began making donation piles in Grams' driveway- her old people neighbors came and started taking things. I called them vultures. They did not seem to care that we were in mourning and just picked at things. I hated them for it, really. Jackson said it was our fault for telling them we were donating those goods. I disagree. Either way, they were pretty much terrible. We did manage to get some things donated to the mission as pictured above. The one great thing the old people did was have a moment of silence for Grams at Bingo. She loved Bingo and would have loved that moment in her honor. It warmed my heart.

We finished at Grams' place and went to get dinner at her favorite place, Cowboys. We then went and had a beer (ok, mom and I had water) in Gramps' honor at the Shanty- the bar near their place. It was just a great way to kind of say good-bye for now to my Grams. I'll miss her so much I cannot stand it.

Thursday morning Jackson and I got on the road to Indiana. We stopped along the way at a fruit stand to get oranges and grapefruits. Yum. We bought far too many so please, if you're local and into oranges let us know. We made a quick stop at the University of Florida (Tim Tebow's Alma Mater) to see the campus and get t-shirts. We really liked it there. We settled in for the night in Ringgold, GA- just outside of Chattanooga, TN. As it turns out, Ringgold was the site of some horrible tornados in April, 2011 and was still rebuilding. It was so sad to see all of the destruction. We had stopped for the night due to storms and tornado warnings to it was a little creepy. Other than some bad rain, we had awesome driving weather. I even got a sunburn on my arm the first day from having the windows down. I love that.

We made it home Friday afternoon around 4:30. We were pretty happy to be out of the car. I'm so glad that we were able to go down to help out my Mom and Guy and to say good-bye to Grams' place. Again, I will miss my Grams for as long as I live, but the trip helped me to have a little closure. I'm so thankful that Ball State gave me 5 days of bereavement leave. I'm also grateful to God's hand in my life that prevented me from being in India at the time of my loss. He is good and He is in control- even in times of sadness.