Grandma McLeod

After 97 years full of love, my beautiful grandma Hazel McLeod passed away today. My grandma Zoe Suzuki passed away earlier this year as well, and even though I am not good at keeping up my blog, I had to make 2 entries about each one because of their profound influence on my life and their examples of living such remarkable lives. The other post is entitled Grandmas and Camels. Both of my grandma raised my amazing parents, and because of their legacy I am blessed with the gospel and my family, the 2 most important things in life.

I was reading a book entitled The Moral Imagination, by John Leaderach, and he was discussing an interesting point  about the present we live in. In his view, the present is not a fleeting moment that passes, but a "two-hundread-year present."  We do this by subtracting the date of birth of the oldest person we have known in our lives from the projected passing-on date of the youngest person in our family. His logic is that our present "is made up of lives that touched (us) and those (we) will touch." It is an interest concept to ponder as we realize this life is about our history of loving and serving others. I thought this very interesting in light of my 97 year old grandma passing away (the oldest person I know). Her life has touched me and it made me think of the many important lessons she has taught me that contribute to the person I and and the present I live.    

What Hazel McLeod has taught me:

1. To develop a love for chocolate. I think she ate a piece of chocolate everyday and she was witty, healthy, and happy as ever all 97 years of her life.
2. To marry the love of your life. Hazel grew up in a small town of Malad, Idaho and while attending business college in Salt Lake fell in love with Eddie. A handsome, charming lad from Scotland. They would look at each other in old age like a honeymoon couple would look at each other. She was his Honey. He was her Eddie. You could feel their love for each other when you were around them. I think of them dancing in my kitchen as they exchanged the purest smiles. And now I think of them dancing today with the sweetest reunion I can imagine. My brother told me when my grandpa was dying around 11 years ago, he walked in on my grandma and him kissing. They loved in this earth life until the very end, and their love will continue in the eternities. 
3. To adapt to life after death. I was heartbroken for my grandma when my grandpa passed away March 15, 2001. Since they were such a unified couple in love, I couldn’t imagine how life could ever be happy after losing the love of your life. She also outlived every one of her siblings, and that would be so difficult to see your family go one by one. But I realized death does not mean losing the love of your life because we have the plan of salvation. We have something to look forward to after this life as we are reunited with all out loved ones that have passed. Grandma McLeod adapted to life as she moved to the Coventry in Salt Lake. It was an independent/ apartment living place where she fit right in with older people in similar situations. She loved showing us around every time we visited and told us about all her friends and activities. She saw value and found joy in the details in life.
4. To embrace the sass and spice. My grandma was for sure a mixture of sugar and spice. I figured the sweetness of all that chocolate she ate diffused into her persona. She was the sweetest lady, but could get nail you with her wit or sassy comment accompanied by a smile. My dad told me a funny experience when he was visiting her at the Coventry. She was asking a young man working at the Coventry when the fireworks were for the 4^th of July. I’m not sure what things were said, but she felt like he was talking down to her or ignoring her question. Later as she recounted the story to my dad she said, “you know Bruce, that mad me so damn mad.” To hear that story made me laugh so hard because I never would hear her say that to me, but knew that is how she felt sometimes. Sweetness with that little kick of sass summed up my grandma.
5. To develop a love for fashion, lipstick, and hair care. I love how she would point out or cut out pictures of models in bright reds or fun outfits and say isn’t that cute, I would love to wear that. She always had to have her hair done, and you could rely on it to be perfectly coif. Every time she went out for an outing at JC Penny’s she’d get dolled up not complete without some lipstick.  
6. To live frugally. She lived a modest life and learned this lesson as she lived through the Great Depression. I wish I talked to her more about this, but she was a great example of how to live a comfortable and simple life, always remembering her family was of most importance.