Goodbye to Grandma!

Early this morning, Brad's Grandma Schmidgall went to meet Jesus. Her children and husband were there and it was peaceful. While it is obviously sad to lose a grandparent, it is a blessing for Grandma as her quality of life has not been very good. She has been living with Alzheimer's for several years.

This is the first grandparent that Brad or I have lost. All of our grandparents have been living, so Broderick has had 12 grandparents. I think he likes having so many mamas and bop-pops. Grandma was one of the nicest people I have ever met, always so sweet and selfless. I'm sad that Anika will never get the opportunity to meet her.














Broderick was able to meet her when we would visit her at the nursing home. There's Rose in the background.













Great Grandpa and Grandma with Broderick. Grandpa would visit her and feed her almost every day.





Grandpa Hartzell and Grandma Marian.










Brad leaves tomorrow to go to the visitation and funeral. I did not think it was a possibility for us to go, but we got Anika's passport in the mail today! I thought it was a sign that I was to go too. I was excited to be able to go with Brad so I wouldn't have to be alone, but also I was excited for people to meet Anika. Brad quickly vetoed the idea as the thought of traveling with 2 little ones for such a short period of time was crazy. Maybe he is right. =) We'll miss him while he's gone, but am happy that he's able to go and be with his family.













Broderick giving some love to Anika. "I love my baby sister."