Goodbye, Grandma

She wasn't really my grandma. She was my cousins' grandma on the other side of their family, but whenever we would go up to Minnesota to visit them, we would always stay at Grandma M's lake home. She felt like my third grandma.

Goodness, I have so many memories from that place. After all, we went there every other summer when I was growing up. And I even took a handful of friends up there with me when I got to high school.

There was the time that I was standing on the moss-covered rocks on the shore... just savoring the cool water as it lapped my toes. That is, until I moved a little too close to the edge and fell in -- fully-clothed -- and got a pretty nasty cut on my toe.

Then there was the year that my cousins' other cousins were there at the same time. All of us kids would go out waterskiing and playing on the raft. The song "Pour Some Sugar on Me" by Def Leppard will always, always remind me of that summer.

Did I ever mention that I witnessed an attempted murder? Well, that happened there too. Wasn't as bad as it sounds. More of a domestic violence thing. But I was getting my bag out of the car late one night, when I heard people out on the road fighting. Lots of yelling "I'm gonna kill you", and the next thing I know the man was yelling for help. Turns out his wife hit him in the head with a cueball. I told the cops what I heard. Then we all went for ice cream.

We played Atari in the rec room. We watched my uncle clean fish in the tackle room. We had many a fish-fry with our prize catches in that house.

And Grandma M was always there with open arms welcoming us as though we were family.

I found out that she passed away Sunday morning. At 92, she lived a full life. She will be missed.