In honor of my Great Grandma Arvilla!

by Cora - the lab

Every morning Mom goes out the back and says, "good morning Gorgeous!" I couldn't understand who she was talking to until she told me some stories of her.

Gorgeous is my great grandmother, who passed away last April. Mom told me stories of how she grew up with Gorgeous right across the driveway and how they were really close. When Mom was a little girl, they would look out Gorgeous windows and bird watch. They would look each bird up in her bird book, and Mom said that they would always see cardinals and Great Grandmother would tell her how beautiful they were. Mom came to realize that Gorgeous favorite bird was the cardinal, because she had figurines, plates, clocks, and clothing with cardinals on them.

During Gorgeous rough times in the hospital and nursing home, Mom would see this beautiful bright red cardinal out the back door, right in perfect view. And if you didn't see it right away, you definitely heard it. I think it gave my mom the peace of mind that Gorgeous was going to be okay and that she would always be here for her. Mom laughed on her 29th birthday when she went outside and all she could hear was Gorgeous singing as loud as could be. I even think you could hear it in the house that day.

She had also had a special moment with the cardinals after Mom and Dad had lost my little brother at 17 weeks of her pregnancy. Mom, Jack and I were the only ones home that day and it had been a week since Drew had passed. Mom went to the cemetery and talked to Jesus and Gorgeous. She came home and we all cried the rest of the day. The following day, mom went outside like normal with her morning cup of coffee and spotted 3 cardinals on a tree in plain view. They didn't sing that morning, they just all turned to mom and let her see that they were okay and then they flew off. I believe it was Great Grandma letting Mom know that she was taking very good care of him.

We all miss her and I know I'll run over to the house to see if she is home when we go to the north country to visit. She always gave us scraps from the table. Mom and Dad don't allow us to eat them, but she always seemed to sneak them to us. We love you Gorgeous and I'll make sure Mom says hi to you from me tomorrow!!!!