Me and My Granny : ) In her memory, here's a story behind our famous line to each other (said every time we had to say goodbye)...it was, "I love YOU the MOSTEST."
I can't exactly remember how it all started, because I was ALWAYS spending time w/her (we were crazy close).. but I do know it started when I was very young. Of course, when we said goodbye we always said I love you to each other but I guess that common phrase was just TOO common for Granny and I. You see, normalcy has never been our style in life so we turned the common phrase into a "who felt it the most" kind of game. It was just our thing and had turned into this fun little competition (which she loved) over the years, for who could get the last one in each time (silly stubborn Irish lasses!). However, it was the last battle that is most memorable to me, and I let her win it... it were those very words that were her LAST words, said to me, right before she passed away in the hospital this past Summer (2008). I still remember like it was yesterday... The whole family had been camped out in her room and at the time I was standing right by her bedside, sad & looking at her just lying there so frail and lifeless. She hadn't been lucid or able to move or communicate w/any of us and the doc didn't think this state would change. He basically said he was surprised she hadn't passed yet... but we were all there, no matter what (the entire family). Well, she (in this terminal state) suddenly opened her eyes, looked right at me, reached out and grasped my hand, pulled me down close to her, all the while looking directly in my eyes the whole time, and said to me... slow but steady, "I love YOU the MOSTEST." The whole room and everyone in it seemed to freeze to me because it was so emotionally moving, and I barely managed to muster out a reply. I pulled up my other hand and squeezed her hand tight with both hands, smiled a very sad smile at her, and looked into her eyes in silence for some time while tears streamed all down my face and I finally said to her, "I'll let you win this time." There was a moment between us then (of love and of silence) and then she smiled at me... her very last smile. And you know (when I look back on it)... Damnit, if she hadn't just got the last word in and won our lifelong competition (THAT was MY Granny, a stubborn & willful player to the end)... but I will NEVER in my LIFE forget that moment.
Me and My Granny : ) In her memory, here's a story behind our famous line to each other (said every time we had to say goodbye)...it was, "I love YOU the MOSTEST." 
I can't exactly remember how it all started, because I was ALWAYS spending time w/her (we were crazy close).. but I do know it started when I was very young. Of course, when we said goodbye we always said I love you to each other but I guess that common phrase was just TOO common for Granny and I. You see, normalcy has never been our style in life so we turned the common phrase into a "who felt it the most" kind of game. It was just our thing and had turned into this fun little competition (which she loved) over the years, for who could get the last one in each time (silly stubborn Irish lasses!). However, it was the last battle that is most memorable to me, and I let her win it... it were those very words that were her LAST words, said to me, right before she passed away in the hospital this past Summer (2008). I still remember like it was yesterday... The whole family had been camped out in her room and at the time I was standing right by her bedside, sad & looking at her just lying there so frail and lifeless. She hadn't been lucid or able to move or communicate w/any of us and the doc didn't think this state would change. He basically said he was surprised she hadn't passed yet... but we were all there, no matter what (the entire family). Well, she (in this terminal state) suddenly opened her eyes, looked right at me, reached out and grasped my hand, pulled me down close to her, all the while looking directly in my eyes the whole time, and said to me... slow but steady, "I love YOU the MOSTEST." The whole room and everyone in it seemed to freeze to me because it was so emotionally moving, and I barely managed to muster out a reply. I pulled up my other hand and squeezed her hand tight with both hands, smiled a very sad smile at her, and looked into her eyes in silence for some time while tears streamed all down my face and I finally said to her, "I'll let you win this time." There was a moment between us then (of love and of silence) and then she smiled at me... her very last smile. And you know (when I look back on it)... Damnit, if she hadn't just got the last word in and won our lifelong competition (THAT was MY Granny, a stubborn & willful player to the end)... but I will NEVER in my LIFE forget that moment.
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