Hannah Leigh: My beautiful Grandma Abbott.

Well it's another night at home alone. Jake is at work. He's been working so hard lately. Thursday and Friday he worked both jobs, being gone about 12 hours.

So naturally, I get on Facebook.

My Uncle Jerry posted some beautiful pictures of my grandma.

For the first time since she passed away, I got emotional. I'm not sure where it came from. Truthfully, I wasn't close to my dad's parents. They lived in Las Vegas, and we generally made it out there almost every summer, but probably more like every summer, just for a few days or a week. My grandparents got divorced a long time ago. I'm not sure exactly when. They decided to get married again a short time after, but then got divorced once more. They had a close relationship the rest of their lives, though. When we went out to Las Vegas we didn't have to worry about the two of them being in the same room together. They were still best friends.

My Grandpa died in December 2005. My dad made a trip out to Las Vegas to take care of his mom and see how his sibling were. A few days later we got a phone call and heard that my grandma died too. It was completely unexpected. I like to think that she died of a broken heart. Even though they were not married at the time they died, they were still great friends. It's such a sad thing, to lose both of your grandparents at the same time. I immediately began to regret not knowing them better.

My Grandma was a beautiful but fierce woman. She was always so happy to see us, especially when she came to visit us and stay at our house for a few days. She would visit with us and always wanted to hear me play the violin. Then there were other times when she would get mad at us for not maintaining our rose bushes (she loved roses) or for not having coffee in the house every morning (though we kept some for her there). She was an outstanding artist. She painted beautiful pictures that I grew up looking at. Strangely enough, we ended up with 7 paintings at the time of her death, and there are 7 Abbott children in my family. I already know which one will end up in my home someday.

My Dad's family is the most fun group of people. I owe so much of who I am to my Dad, and he is who he is because of his parents and siblings. He has 2 brothers (Joe and Jerry) and one sister (ToniAnn). I have never had the opportunity to get to know Joe, though I'm sure he's a nice man. My Uncle Jerry is one of the funniest men I have ever met. I loved when my family would come to Las Vegas and get together with him, because he is so much like my dad and brothers. Seeing them together in the same room is amazing. Such a great, genuine man. My Aunt ToniAnn is possibly the biggest sweetheart I know. A huge heart. She always gave me such great compliments growing up, always made me feel good about myself.

I'm sad that I haven't seen any of them in many years. In fact, Jake has never met a single person from my Dad's family. Some day we'll make a trip out to Las Vegas and see them.

The main reason i wanted to write this post is so that I could share some pictures of my Grandma. I want to keep a record of these, for my own kids.

Sorry the pictures are so small! I don't know how to make them bigger!