I couldn’t ask for a better grandma then Verna Pickard. From the time I came to America to the day of March 10th, 2010, she was always there for me. To me, her personality was described as a compassionate woman. She would take any stranger in her house and make sure they didn’t leave hungry or sad. A couple of games a person that had been having a rough day would add a smile on their face. My grandma loved games, its well said when I say that. When anyone walked into her house there was aroma of cinnamon rolls and fresh baked cookies. There were always cookies in the cookie jar, never to be found empty. I also have to mention when a person walked into her house, she always said, “There is candy on top of the microwave. Take as much as you want”, so I would go over to this blue fancy container she had the candy in and grab a handful of whatever kind of candy she had in the jar, most of the time it would be caramel.

Grandma always had a spare room in her house, a room for the grandchildren to have a slumber party, but also for her children that came for a visit. Having ten children, there was always someone at her house. Her youngest daughter ended up being born with Downs Syndrome. My grandma was a caregiver from the time she was young to the time she got old.

I had many of memories with my grandma; mainly it was the sleepovers that filled those memories up. A day at grandma’s was a day of fun I would have to call it. I got out of bed to walk out to the table of food knowing in mind that we were going to play a game of trouble and have an imagination of tea party. The one thing I never had to imagine was the taste of my favorite cookies that grandma made, gingersnaps. No one can make gingersnaps like my grandma. Then she always made this chocolate cake that I could never get enough of. Well… anyway lets go back to that morning of the eggs and bacon, we got done eating and of course I was right. We played a game of trouble and goldfish. Then we laid down for a little nap and watch a princess movie. I would sit a couple inches in front of the TV singing out loud and I turn my head back at grandma and she’s smiling at me, probably thinking how silly I am. By the time the movie was done grandma was sleeping. Grandma has always had coloring books under her brown stained coffee table with a box of crayons, so I took them out and went back to my aunt’s room to color. My aunt liked to stay in her room watching TV and reading her bible. While I was sitting by my aunt, I looked around the room and my eyes caught on all of the colors of makeup, so I asked my aunt to give me a makeover. We did that while grandma was dreaming away in her lounging chair. By the time grandma got up, I had all the colors of the rainbow on my face. Grandma walks back to my aunt’s room and smile then tell me to take it all off. My aunt and I went to the bathroom that was just a couple rooms down from hers. We scrubbed my face down with a wet towel. In the meantime, grandma was in her kitchen looking at her recipe book trying to figure out what to make for supper. One of her main dishes was a nice hot tator-tot hot dish.

Hours and years went on with the coming of aging. Getting a couple wrinkles here and there, celebrating the holidays together with each other. Speaking for my grandma I would say she spent a wonderful life with wonderful people in it. I have never regretted any moment with my grandma, wishing she was still here to see me graduate, to see me get married, to see me have kids, but she is in a better place now. She passed away in Golden Age Manor. A place I work and have trouble holding the tears in when I walk by that room where she rested in peace. To me she was one of a kind.