My granny died this week, and as I was trying to grab hold of my best memories of her, these were three of the many things that came to mind.

Granny never did anything by halves, and before old age caught up with her, she moved through life like an unstoppable five-foot hurricane.  She never walked; she always jogged or skipped everywhere, whistling under her breath.  Or, if she was on her bike, she took no notice of the highway code, but zoomed back and forth in the middle of the road – so much so that the police had to ask her to start using the footpath.  Granny did not observe protocol, in any setting, causing huge embarrassment to everyone but herself.   Maybe she was still moving too fast to notice the carnage she left in her wake.  And also the many many blessings…

Even though Granny always rushed, one of my most precious memories of her is when she sat on my bed and told me the story of Goldilocks and the 3 bears – every time she babysat in fact.  She made me feel safe, and happy then.  Another comfort was the frequent supply of ‘smiley biscuits’ – ginger nuts pressed with a cutter to mark smiles, clearly made by someone in a rush, but definitely the happiest biscuits I’ve ever eaten.  Granny’s ‘no half measures’ approach unfortunately made its way into the amount of salt she put into her cooking, and the Vesuvius-sized fires she built.  How apt that she once taught me how to play syncopated  piano music with the song ‘Smoke gets in your eyes’.

What a larger-than-life person my wee granny was.  Of course this meant that she sometimes rubbed people up the wrong way, but she often prompted them to change too.  Granny always left her mark, and always will.

I can just imagine her skipping and whistling her way into heaven – no-one will miss that grand entrance!