Sunlight has faded, although it is only 4PM. I am flying east over the Pacific Ocean, about 1.5 hours out of Narita Airport in Japan.
I’m heading back to Iowa from Taiwan for Grandma Ardeen’s funeral.
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| The all-grandson casket detail |
She lived 89 years and would have turned 90 in the spring. She spent the one of the last days of her life enjoying a nice Thanksgiving with much of her family around her at Aunt Marla’s farm outside of Newell, IA.
I will always remember looking forward to visiting Grandma Ardeen’s house when I was a young boy. Grandma would take us along to her bingo games at Moose lodges and Elks halls and wherever people gathered in Algona and neighboring towns to play. We always got to play at least a couple Bingo cards, and sometimes we won a little spending money! I really enjoyed going on these trips with Grandma, and I think she enjoyed having us – her grandsons – along to show off to her friends.
We also got to do fun things with our uncles when we visited Grandma’s house. I remember Uncle Jeff taking me for my first motorcycle ride one summer, and Uncle Jerry took us on our first fishing trip.
During our winter visits we would play for hours in the deep snow drifts outside Grandma’s house and later enjoy our favorite Christmas-time treats, the so-called “Santa head” ice cream novelty.
Then there were the epic Uno card games (pronounced YOU-know by the locals, apparently). Uncle Jeff would pop up big batches of his famous popcorn and we’d eat it until we were stuffed.
When it was time to eat breakfast, Grandma would ask what everyone wanted and try to meet all the demands, be it French toast, pancakes, eggs, cereal, or what have you. Despite her efforts to be a short-order cook for the rest of us, she’d invariably have just a piece of toast with peanut butter on it – dipped, of course, in a cup of coffee, bite by bite.
If I wanted to snack on some potato chips at Grandma’s house, I learned that I should look not in a cupboard but instead in the dishwasher! It wasn’t for doing dishes – we’d take turns at the sink working in pairs to do those by hand, usually with Grandma or another grown-up washing and with us kids manning the towels to dry the clean dishes.
Grandma’s passion for life was evident to anyone who knew her. While she was still getting around well, she maintained a large circle of friends who shared her enjoyment in the bingo games she loved, or, when she was younger, group travel to distant places that sounded so exotic to me. She’d load up on a bus with a bunch of her friends to far-off lands like Florida and return with so many tales of fun. She’d go on cruises, too. It seemed to me like she really had the right idea about living life.
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| Photos and other remembrances from Grandma's life |
She seemed to have a new car almost every year when we came to visit. I enjoyed riding in the new cars and smelling the “new car” smell.
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| The last time we were all together in Grandma's life - August 2009 |
More recently, as she grew older and more frail, she wasn’t able to travel as much, and it became progressively harder for her to get out to see her family and friends. Even so, whenever I would return from my travels in the Marine Corps, she would always make the trip to Omaha or Lincoln or Newell with her kids to see my burgeoning family and our kids. And although she never had a chance to meet her newest great grandson in person (he was born this year in Taiwan), I know they will meet later, in God’s house. I know Grandma always wanted a great granddaughter, but she never had one – at least, not while she was alive.
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| Grandma Ardeen with her two great grandsons - August 2009 |
Let’s remember Ardeen Sampson fondly, for hers was a life lived fully. She passed on to the next world peacefully only hours after enjoying a final Thanksgiving dinner surrounded by her family and friends. We could all learn a lesson from her example.
GJS
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