Grandma Dolly

All, please pray for my family as I have lost another Grandmother. Dolly was my dad's birth mother. She placed my dad for adoption when she was in her early 20's. She managed to keep dad a secret for 57 years. She told no one about him, not even her husband. Dad found her 11 years ago and a loving bond was formed. I will never forget mom and dad sitting Shane and I down to tell us that they found her. I was so suprised. They exchanged letters and phone calls for a few months and then mom, dad and I flew to Louisiana to see her. Her home and family are in Houma, which is about 45 miles southwest of New Orleans. When we drove up to her house she came out to meet us, hugged me with tears in her eyes and told me I looked just like her sister Amy. (Now, I have met Amy and she is quite a few inches shorter than me and has very dark hair. Maybe in her younger years she was tall and blonde???) We spent one day there visiting Dolly and met her daughter-in-law Nancy and Nancy's 2 children, Jeff and Katy, my cousins. We flew home the same day. Many trips came after that for my parents.

One very special relationship came between my parents and my dad's half-sister Georgie. Georgie lived in Germany for 30 years and taught American students at the army bases there. My parents flew to Germany and Georgie took them all over Europe. Dad and Georgie became very close. Georgie passed away June 2005 from cancer. We all converged on Houma to spend some time with her before her passing. Jacob remembers this trip well. She passed away just 3 weeks after we were there. Dad then became Dolly's only living child (her other son, Danny, passed away in the 70's from leukemia). Georgie also had a best friend, Marsha, who lives in Orlando and works at Disney World. We have visited her each time we have gone there.

Her services are Monday morning. My parents are driving to LA Sunday to attend. I am still undecided as we are having Christmas here on Sunday. It is something I need to pray about as my heart wants to be there.

We were blessed this summer when Nancy had to evacuate Dolly due to Hurricane Gustav which hit Houma head on. They were here for over a week. We enjoyed the time we got to spend with them. It meant so much to me for Jacob to be around Dolly as we knew her health was failing. She had a great sense of humour and definately had her wits about her 'til the end. I wish that we had lived closer and I could have spent more time getting to know her. Her passing is very sad for all of us. Please pray for us and for my family in Houma.