Savannah and Grandma Knight

(There's Grandma Knight in the middle of the heart with the rest of us--including Pippi--in the frame.)

For the past several months, Savannah has been obsessed with Grandma Knight (my mother who died a year and a half ago). Her last name was Hall by then, but my kids never really made the switch.

It all started a few months ago when I said, "This blanket is the one Grandma Knight made for you when you were a baby." I said it off-hand and gave her the blanket. Mom made all the kids these fleece blankets and they all loved them. So then I went to do some random bedtime activity and I came back to give Savannah water or whatever and she was sitting on the edge of her bed crying. And I was like, "What's wrong?" And she was like, "I just miss her and I only got to see her twice [not true, but I'm guessing that's what she remembers] and it will be a long long time until I see her again." Which is hopefully very true, but it was just so sad and cute and slightly weird. So I hugged her and tucked her in.

And over the course of the next few weeks, she started drawing pictures of Grandma Knight. She made a teeny tiny one for the locket Grandpa gave her for Christmas. She's made a bunch for this empty picture book I gave her a while back. She made one that we framed and is on the desk (see above). Grandma is usually in a heart or surrounded by hearts or some such other thing. Sometimes she has short hair (cancer months); sometimes she has long hair ("when she was younger"--or the pre-cancer times). She always has glasses, which if you knew my mom is kind of cute and funny because Mom ALWAYS wore her glasses, even when we pestered her to take them off for a picture or something. No. She would stubbornly wear them anyway. She wore them at least part of the time the last time I saw her when she was bedridden and very close to death. She just always wore them.

Anyway, when she brought me the picture we ended up framing, she said this to me. "I feel the Spirit when I do pictures of Grandma Knight." I gave her a hug and then she said with perfect sincerity, "Sometimes tears come out." Which is very true. Savannah can cry some tears, people. And the truth is that maybe it wouldn't be so exceptional if we talked about these sorts of things (like feeling the spirit in certain ways, etc.) often, but we don't (we probably should, but we don't so way to go Primary teachers). Anyway, it's just been so sweet and strange and precious to have all her pictures around and to see the way that she has found to connect with the grandmother she would otherwise barely remember. I love that kid.

And while we're talking about pictures and cuteness, let's have a look at the deck art that the kids created today.

Here's the family holding hands. Again Pippi is included. 

And the artist sisters.