Matt and I have one grandparent left between us.  Grandpa Bill, Matt’s mom’s dad, lost his wife to breast cancer before I joined the family.  I didn’t have the pleasure of knowing her personally, but she was famously fabulous.  After he lost his wife, Grandpa found a friend and a companion in Jeanie.  She was there the first time I met Grandpa… I wanted to go to Canada for my 4 day spring break in grad school, so Matt took me and another friend, claiming his parents lived awfully close to Canada 🙂  We started dating as soon as we got back!  Matt, Sean, and I went to Bridgeman’s, a cafe and ice cream shop in Duluth because that was where Grandpa breakfasted each day, and we wanted to see him.  And there was Jeanie sitting next to him, a tiny little thing with beautiful hands and a warm smile.  We ordered a Lollapalooza, the most enormous ice cream sundae ever, and split it.  Jeanie ordered a dish of rum cherry, her favorite.

Grandpa often said that people misjudged his relationship with Jeanie… they loved each other but there was “no need to marry her and make an honest woman of her” was how he put it.  They were just friends!  (There is something uncomfortable about hearing this sort of thing from your grandparents… but it is also hilarious).  They shared life and spent time together, a widow and a widower who really enjoyed one another.  Well, Jeanie died last Friday.  Also of breast cancer… an evil tool that took both women Grandpa loved.  Her funeral is today, and we can’t be there.  These past 11 months have seen the deaths of 2 of my uncles and my grandma and now Matt’s grandpa’s friend, Jeanie.

We went home to Duluth last summer when I was enormously pregnant to attend a cousin’s wedding.  Jeanie is family, so here she is in a photo of all the family who could make it to the wedding!  She’s the sweet older woman in the middle right and Grandpa is on her left, surrounded by most of his kids and grandkids (and 2 great-grandkids growing inside me!).  Jeanie never got to meet the babies beyond seeing pictures of them.  It makes me sad… she would have loved them so much.  Alana wrote a beautiful blog post yesterday, so I’ll just link you there.  I married into an amazing family.