Grandma Bair

A little over a month ago, a very special woman, a great lady passed away. Joe's mom, Mary, was diagnosed with kidney cancer at the beginning of the year, and it proved to be a very aggressive disease that metastasized before it could all be removed.

Part of our heartbreak is knowing that our children will have no memory of their gentle, loving, always-serving grandma. I want them to know some things about Grandma Bair. And since this is a journal of sorts of their childhoods, I figure this is as good a place as any to record our thoughts.

At Mary's funeral, we heard many of her friends comment about how they felt like Mary knew them better than they knew her. She was the kind of person who is both easy to talk to and genuinely interested in you. I had many chats with her over the years, long and serious and short and silly. She'd laugh in all the right places and even cried with me many times over my own small heartaches and troubles. She was the best audience to tell a story to.

It wasn't difficult to make Mary cry. :) She cried every time we drove away to make the long road trip back to BYU and then every time she dropped us off at the airport for our flight back to Illinois. The kids had a goal each year to make her cry at Christmas. The family gift for Mom wasn't considered a success unless it touched her deeply enough to make her cry.

Mary was always doing. I am amazed when I think of all the things she was involved in, even in the short time I knew her. Organizing an orchestra and all their music for Valley Choral Society, politics, teaching junior high (pretty much for fun, it seemed like, because she was asked to and was bad at saying no :), keeping all the books for her husband's automotive repair business, reading, writing an entire book, running the temple laundry in Sacramento, serving as Stake Relief Society president, taking care of her family and home, and the list goes on. She was always in and out and working hard, so cheerfully too. And it didn't seem like she had to work at being cheerful. It just came so naturally to her. It's like it didn't occur to her to complain.

She loved her family most of all. I have been so impressed by this special lady since the very first time I met her (which is a story in itself ... maybe I'll tell it here another day). We miss her every day, but her passing has only strengthened, deepened, and made more real our faith in the hereafter. We'll be so happy to see her again someday, to see what she's been up to in heaven. I have no doubt she's working hard, and doing it with a smile.