Mummu.
This has been an eventful week for me and my family. Last weekend my paternal grandmother was hospitalized and it was decided that she needed surgery on her stomach. As it turned out, the surgery would have been a very difficult one for her to recover from and, with her mental state the way it was, it was decided by her children that surgery would not be the best option for any of them. So my Mummu (‘grandmother’ in Finnish) died on Tuesday at 1 in the morning.
I saw her last Sunday and we all got to sit with her and sing hymns and tell stories and talk about graduation and college. This week has been a complex, heavy time, but also a time to be with family and celebrate her life. In some ways, I feel like I had been preparing myself for this for the past months. She had been struggling with her memory and we could all see her becoming more and more frustrated with the world around her. She wasn’t herself in some ways these past months, but we all will remember her for the way she was before.
The funeral was this morning and it was a beautiful service. All of her children were able to attend the funeral and even see her before she passed earlier this week. It was amazing to have almost all of the family together for this time and I know it helped a lot. We sang songs and shared meals and told stories. It was a time of remembrance and community, of laughs and tears, of music and food.
Death is sad, but with my Mummu I felt like she was ready and willing. And knowing this has helped a lot. She was a great lady and she will be missed a lot. I was told that she kept saying in her last days that all she wanted was to go home to Jesus. Death is a part of life and we were blessed to have so many members of our family together to celebrate her. She is in a better place. Singing hymns of praise. Peace.
2 years ago
