Graveside Service

Grandma's graveside service happened the crisp Monday morning after the funeral. All were invited, but not obligated being that is was a school/work day for most.

                                    

The service was short, but sweet and Uncle Kevin dedicated the grave.

After some chatting and picture-taking, we headed back to Grandma's house to do some major sorting and clean up.

With all of my kids in school, I was able to stay all day and into the night to help. I completely enjoyed my time going through boxes, bags, cupboards and drawers. Finding all sorts of long-forgotten treasures. One of the most impressive things to me, was filling 6-8 kitchen garbage bags FULL of brand NEW (still in their original packaging) sheets, pillowcases and towels. I'm guessing they were being saved for gifts and/or projects.

Back-tracking a bit... the sisters/aunts had decided that they would like everyone to have something of Grandma/Grandpa's. The day of the funeral, each of us wrote down our top 3 things we would like to receive. The aunts gathered the requests and made some time-consuming decisions about what would go home with whom. It was interesting what each person put down as their items of interest.

I'm sure these items were on someone's list. :)

Charlie Brown and Lucy orange pillows that were kept on the bed downstairs in Mom and Angela's childhood room (made by Hertha?).

Grandpa's old adding machine.

The black rotary dial phone.

Grandma's jewelry.

We each ended up with something we wanted...including their Buick Century!!! (Rylee put that on her list.)

We've replaced the battery and it's in the shop for fuel pump repairs. Hope it works when everything is said and done.

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Ison!

Grandma Ison's Funeral

We had what seemed like, a mini family reunion for Grandma Ison's funeral. Many family and friends gathered to say their good-byes.

Arielle made a video for the viewing/funeral. She started with pictures of grandma as a baby, continued throughout her life, then ended with a recent video recording of Grandma cooing, oooing and ahhing over the newest great-grand baby, Jonathan.
As you hear grandma say, "What should we do with all these kids?" the video pans out to the big family photo, then back to grandma holding Jonathan. It's very sweet...gets me teary every time I watch.

Jocile-Angela-LoraDawn-Jana-Kristen

Amber and I gathered a few things from Grandma's house to display at the funeral.
We included things that said "Grandma Ison" to us; porcelain baby doll, temple presidency pictures, temple cross-stitch, canned peaches, hen/rooster creamer, scriptures, decorated egg, a piece of the petrified wood fence from Arizona, grandma holding a baby, and one of her aprons.

It was a wonderful service. Each daughter participated in the program. Jocile gave the life sketch, Angela, Mom and Jana gave talks about, "lessons learned from mother" and Kristin played an organ piece. The talks were personal, entertaining and even thought-provoking. It was very enjoyable.

The great-grandkids also got to participate by singing.

Included in our family gathering, was Dean/Candice's family. They were able to pull enough strings to get Jackson baptized/confirmed and Jonathan blessed that same weekend. Sooo nice to be with family.

Visiting Grandma Ison

Saturday, November 17th, Grandma Ison had a stroke. The doctors told us that this was something she would not recover from.

On Sunday evening, after the Boise Temple re-dedication, the kids and I decided to go visit her. We left Jason home to keep our dinner appointment, to feed the missionaries, as we trekked to Caldwell.

I left the decision up to each of the kids if they wanted to go. I explained, to the best of my ability, about what they might see or what it might be like. I said I thought this would be the last time we would see her before she went to heaven. Each of them agreed to go. --Treyson took the longest to make the decision. He was worried about Jason being lonely at home and having to feed the missionaries on his own. He may have been a little worried about Grandma too.

It was a peaceful, happy time, mixed with a few tears. I held Grandma's hand as she breathed heavily...tapering off to shallow..then back to heavy. She was fevered and quite warm. She didn't look like her normal self.

Jana, Kevin, Arielle and Mom were there (and had been there since the day before)..and Tim/Karen and family came later. (Others had visited the day/night before.) We talked about the Youth Cultural Celebration from Saturday night (Rylee and Taylee got to be a part of) and shared our thoughts/feelings about the temple re-dedication from that day.

Eventually, we had a family prayer. Tim gave a very sweet prayer, leaving most of us in tears. Then Tim and Kevin gave Grandma a blessing. Kevin told Grandma that we loved her, thanked her for her wonderful example to us and told her that she could leave mortality whenever she was ready.

Before we left we took turns saying good-bye. By then, the kids had warmed up to the idea of touching her hand. We told her we loved her and then headed back home.

The next morning, Grandma was transferred to Jana/Kevin's home. They were given instructions through Hospice care, about how to make Grandma comfortable. Mom, Jana and Kevin cared for her that day. Early, early Tuesday morning, November 20th, Grandma Ison went back to heaven to be with Grandpa, Aunt Hertha, and many other loved ones.

I feel blessed that I was able to visit Grandma, before she passed away. It has touched me in a way, I won't forget. Being around her, strengthened my testimony of death being just the next step... not nearly as scary or terrible as my fears want it to be. I feel like I was taught by Grandma, even when she wasn't responsive. What a great example she is to me about enduring to the end.

We love you Grandma Ison!

Dinner with Grandma Ison

Grandma Ison's care worker was out-of-town for the week, so we took turns bringing dinner over to her.

Our family signed up for Monday evening. Candice and Dean's family joined us.

When we got there, it took several minutes for her to answer the door. I called on the phone, we banged on the door, we rang the door bell multiple times and Dean tapped on her bedroom window. When she FINALLY answered the door, she was excited and pleased to see the big crowd that awaited her.

We caught her without her wig on. The kids had a few questions, but mostly couldn't believe that she usually wore a wig. :)

She said, "Oooo, it's nice to see all of you. I was just about to go to bed."

It was just a little after 5:00pm.

We put ALL the extension leaves into the dining table and combined our dinner efforts; chili, baked potatoes (w/toppings) and cornbread muffins.
Dean, Levi & Candice
Abree & Lizzy
Jackson & Treyson

Micaela & Taylee

Rylee & Grandma

See any resemblance?

Grandma & Me

As we were eating, Grandma kept asking the kids their names/ages. Eventually we asked if she would like for them to be written down.

"Yes!"

"Grandma, do you want them in table order or family order?"

"Family order."

Candice wrote them down for her. She looked over the list and kind of said the names to herself. "Grandma, you say a name and we'll raise our hand."

So she would say a name and we would raise our hand. She would look surprised and make a cute comment and then move on to the next name. It became a game. She continued to call names over and over and we would raise our hands. She was surprised every time. :)

For some reason, she would skip over Taylee every time..and would call Treyson's name instead. Maybe it was confusing to know how to pronounce it???

Even Levi got the game. When she would call his name he started to say, "MEEEE!"

We finished dinner, loaded the dishwasher and then visited for just a few minutes. Because it was a school night, we needed to be on our way. It was hard to leave. We could tell she would have loved for us to stay longer. She verbalized her gratitude over and over..so glad that we came to visit.

Love you Grandma Ison!

Family Gathering

Memorial Day weekend, Angela and Nanette were planning on coming to Caldwell. I thought it would be fun to have a family gathering. I sent out an email invitation to all and hoped we could make it happen... and then it did. :)

For the first part of our gathering, we had dinner. I was hoping for warmer, dryer weather, but we toughed it out and gathered under Grandma's carport for taco salad.

Hoodies, ear warmers and blankets welcome!
Grandma Ison

Rylee

Ciarran & Colin

Aaron & sweet Lydia

Arielle

Chanel

Dean & Candice

Angela

Tim, Karen & Sydney

A cool new meal strategy; let the kids play inside (warm , dry and entertained) while the adults eat, then tell the kids it's time for dinner.

They were having so much fun playing "house", that when I told them it was time for dinner I heard, "Awww, but we're still playing."

After a quick clean up, they finally decided they would come out to eat.

Jackson & Treyson

Taylee & Micaela

Lizzy, Tim & Audrey

Katelyn, Abree

Lizzy

Morgan

The next part of our plan, was to visit the cemetery and Grandpa Ison's grave site.

The weather was cool, but for the most part we stayed dry.

At Grandma Ison's request, we gathered around and sang a few songs; "The Family Home Evening Song" written by Uncle Lynn Hansen(?) and "I Am A Child of God".

Emma

Grandma told anyone who would listen, about the chicks and who they represented, (on the headstone) over and over.

Rylee

After the cemetery, we sent husbands/dads and kids home, while the girls gathered back at Grandma's for "chick chat".

We looked through memory picture albums.

Caught up with one another's life happenings.

Answered "get to know you better" questions.

Shared treats.

And met new family members.

This is Tiffany's new family;

Scott, Darin (new husband), Tiffany

Isaac & Shelby

Welcome to the family!

Many of us stayed WAY late talking.

Grandma Ison didn't want to miss a thing and managed to stay up for all of it.

Family, thanks for gathering. It was fun.

Next gathering? We are tenatively planning on the second weekend in August, in Utah, when Martha and her boys come to visit.

Hope to see you there!