All the Way Down to Janesville

Jake's grandmother is 92 and lives in Janesville.  Janesville is a town south of us and it takes about 45 minutes to get there.  I know I'm living in a small town now because people talk about Janesville as if it's on a different planet.  Jake will call up his grandmother and ask her how the weather is down there in Janesville, in complete seriousness, even though he could easily hop in the car and actually be there in under an hour.  I had some commutes in San Diego that took longer.  Anything that's more than about 5 or 10 miles away here exists in a different town, and if it's in a different town it's automatically far away.

A couple of years ago we spent an evening with her and after dinner we decided to play Uno Attack.  I think Jake's grandma had a special secret strategy up her sleeve, and nobody ever clued in to it.  She would act all confused and befuddled, and would hold half of her cards facing the wrong way, simply to lure us into complacency.  Then when we were fooled into helping her play the game, she would go on the attack and beat us all.  She won every time.  

Jake's grandma is a sweet lady.  The only negative thing I ever heard her say was in reference to Iowa.  "Iowa is not a state I like," she said, out of the blue.  

Suffering from a number of diseases in addition to sheer old age, Jake's grandma has been getting sick of living.  But she kept saying she was hanging on until the babies' birth, as she wanted to see her great grandchildren.  She was excited to hear about the babies, and Jake talked to her shortly after they were born.  She has a December birthday too.  Jake's mom printed out a bunch of pictures and sent them to her, so she could see photos to tide her over until the time that we would come visit in person.

When the babies were born we planned to take them down to Janesville to visit Grandma S. once the weather warmed up a bit.  We were waiting for Jake's mother to arrive, so that we could all go together, and we were waiting for a non-frigid day.  I also just wanted to give the babies time to get a little bit bigger, older, stronger.  I didn't feel great about the idea of hauling them all the way down to Janesville on a cold and snowy day when they were just a month old, especially since they'd be visiting a nursing home.  

Last Saturday, she had a cold.  The next night, she went to the hospital with pneumonia.  Just a day later, she passed away.  

How I regret not taking the babies down to Janesville.  It was only a 45-minute drive.