She Was a 'Grandma'...

“Grandma always made you feel she had been waiting to see just you all day.”  – Marcy DeMaree

           

Betty Faulhaber was a good wife (Gerry) and mother of three (Carol, Jackie and Janet)…BUT TRUTH BE TOLD, SHE WAS A GRANDMA.

She was a kind person with a soft touch.  She was a simple woman, but sharp as a tack.  And she was one of the most amazing cooks I’ve ever met.  Her Thanksgiving meals were epic, and everyone who ever attended one raves about it.  We are all born to ‘be something’ and have ‘special talents.’  Cooking was one of Betty’s talents…But her greatest talent was being a grandma.

I was the first grandchild, and I always felt special for this fact.  Grandma definitely harvested this feeling.  She allowed me to break all the rules in her house:  Sneaking cookies, extra ice cream and cottage cheese, jumping and touching the walls inside, throwing balls on the outside wall, climbing the clothes-line, petting the dogs, messing with the pigeons, etc., etc., etc.  I was her favorite, and she let me get away with things the other grandkids weren’t allowed to do…All truths in my own mind, but truths I know weren’t true, because I know if I asked my cousins they’d all say they felt they were her favorite, were treated special, and got away with things the rest of us didn’t.  Because, we were all her favorite.  She loved us all, and loved being a grandma.  She simply let us be us, and treated us with extreme kindness.  All of us.  All of the time.  And she was thrilled to see each of us - together or individually.

But I was still #1!!!

Just kidding.  We all know Billy was 🙂

Betty was also amazing to her grandkid’s spouses and her great-grandchildren.  They were always accepted with open arms and treated as her own…More family just meant more people to be grandma for.

I will miss grandma, but am glad to see she isn’t going to suffer more or longer.  I’m also glad she won’t have to wonder ‘when daddy is coming home’ any more, nor be told to ‘eat her meals’...Grandma lived a long, healthy, productive, and happy life.  She had a loving family, and reciprocated this love back to all of us.  It’s all she could have asked for. It’s all any us of should ask for.

Betty Brinkman became Mrs. Gerald Faulhaber, and then the mother of Carol, Jackie and Janet...But truth be told, BETTY BRINKMAN WAS BORN TO BE GRANDMA FAULHABER.

Rest in peace, Grandma.  I will always have nothing but fond memories of you....Love - Jay