A Lost Generation

January was not a good month for grandmas.

On January 21, 2014, my grandmother on my father's side passed away at her home in Jamul, California from cancer. I thankfully got to visit her just a few days before to say my final goodbyes. Ethel was just about the sweetest grandma that one could have. One of those always cheery ladies who would sneak her grandkids candy behind their parents' backs. It's a shame that we weren't able to live nearby for more of my life, but those things are beyond our control. I will never forget the years I spent living in Irvine, CA during my childhood and the frequent visits we made to my grandparents' house.

I took Bethany and the girls down to San Diego with me a couple weekends after her passing for a family BBQ (photos coming soon). That was all my grandmother said she really wanted when she was on her deathbed; for all of us to get together as a family. No fancy memorial service. For her informal memorial service during the BBQ, I created the below slideshow depicting her life.

Three days later, on January 24, 2014, my grandmother on my mother's side passed away at St. Francis Hospital in Federal Way, Washington. Her health has slowly deteriorated over the last few years. When it was found that she had a foot infection in early January, the doctors suggested amputation of her leg. A procedure like that is tough for an old woman and her body did not heal after the operation. Despite all this excitement before the end of her life, I'll chalk this one up to old age since her condition wasn't exactly great before the surgery.

Suer has lived in Federal Way ever since I was born, so seeing her and my grandfather often was not a problem. It has been a family tradition for years now to get together for lunch on Sundays and visit with my grandmother. Even still, our relationship was not exactly close because she never fully learned English in order for us to have conversations. She mostly spoke through her cooking and the way she took care of her family. I visited her almost every night she was in the hospital before she passed. Again, we did an informal family gather/memorial service for her, and that's where I played the slideshow below.

It's pretty unlucky to lose two very important people in your life in the same week. It's even more unlucky when those two people are the last of a generation in your family. Quickly, I found myself becoming the second oldest generation, and my daughters are now the third. These past couple months have been rough because of this, so here's to hoping that the rest of 2014 has the opposite kind of excitement.