Grandma Bergeson

Today my Grandma Bergeson passed away. She died peacefully in her sleep, with each of her children, their spouses, and Grandpa close by. Grandma was the best quilter and crocheter I've ever known. She was always working on something--quilts and afghans, doilies, and her famous hot pads. Her afghans are the absolute best. My dad still sleeps with the brown and orange one she made for him before I was born and I took mine back to her several times to get inches added on to the bottom when I grew to tall for it. I remember when I was in junior high getting to go into Grandma's sewing room, with several quilts laying out on the bed and choosing which one I wanted when I got married. And then later, before I was married, choosing afghans, quilts, and other blankets for when I had a baby. She always reserved something pink for me. My wedding quilt is pink, all the hot pads she made for me are pink, and even the afghan she crocheted for Max when he was born has a little stripe of pink in between two rows of blue, just for me. And I'm sure she did this with as much attention and detail for her children and each of her 17 grandchildren. I can't even begin to imagine how many blankets she made in her 90-year lifetime. When I was 8, I asked Grandma to make me a dress to match my Samantha doll. I didn't know at the time that Grandma didn't really like to make clothes, but she still made me most beautiful dress and even some extra dresses for my doll. I have a very vivid memory of going to visit Grandma and Grandpa, and having Grandma tell me to go look downstairs. I walked downstairs and on the wire bookshelf at the bottom of the stairs hung my dress. I loved that dress and wore it to shreds. Grandma was a competitive gamer and some of my favorite later memories are playing Skip-Bo with her and Grandpa. She would always draw her cards before the person before her was done and would sing, "He's gone about as fer as he can go..." But my absolute favorite memories are of her interacting with Grandpa. He was always asking her to remember the name of someone or else she was correcting him on some little fact. Their dynamic was absolutely perfect and obviously so full of love. I hope Blake and I end up just like Grandma and Grandpa. And if all these little memories plus so many more don't help me always remember Grandma, all I have to do is look at my, Max, or Jack's widow's peak and wavy hair for the perfect, constant reminder. I love my Grandma.

{Grandma with Baby Addi, Baby Max, and Baby Jack}