Our family lost a dear woman on Monday night. A long time ago, we called her Grandmother Nancy – but when Jonas came along as a young talker, he renamed her “Yaya” out of the clear blue sky. We don’t know where he came up with that moniker, but it stuck and pretty soon we all called her Yaya.
About a month ago, Yaya was diagnosed with AML – acute myeloid leukemia – about a month ago. This past Friday, she was hospitalized with what appeared to be pneumonia. Monday night, she passed away. While it was sudden, it wasn’t totally unexpected because of this form of leukemia.
We are so sad that she’s gone. Last night when I was lying in bed, I remembered one year (was it Thanksgiving? or Christmas time?) that Yaya had found a recipe for Chex mix and she wanted to try it out. Donna and Missy and I were all there – and maybe Laura and Andrea? – and we had all the ingredients spread out all over the kitchen counters while the guys were watching football. Karl made some joking comments about how it would have been cheaper to just buy a bag of pre-made Chex mix, and Yaya told him, “We are not making Chex mix here! We are making memories.” She was so right. 😉
Her funeral will be this Friday in Cedartown, Georgia. You can view her obituary online by clicking here.