Eulogizing Grandma

A friend of the family asked that I share this. She felt it captured my grandmother so well. This is what I read at her funeral.

On September 20, 1933 the world was blessed with an angel, Mary Sue Baudison Corn…my grandmother. She was a devoted daughter, sister, wife, mother, grandmother, aunt, & friend. Some of my earliest childhood memories are the times I spent with her. When I was about 3…4 years old, Grandma had just given my cousin Robbie & I a bath in the kitchen sink. She dried us off and took Robbie upstairs to bed. While she was gone, I got too curious with the stove and ended up setting her kitchen on fire. I remember her rushing me outside and running back in to get Robbie. I remember the fire truck lights and laughing about the whole thing years later. A few years later, a neighborhood girl was giving away free kittens. I grabbed my favorite, ran to Grandma’s, and as she sat in her chair, I came up from behind her and lowered the kitten in front of her face asking if I could keep it. I’ve never seen her yell and leap from a chair that fast again, unless there was a cat nearby. Some years later, when I was in high school, I wrote a story about Grandma’s fear of cats and won an award for it.

Most of my adult life, she would tell me how she couldn’t wait for me to find a great guy and get married. She said, I want to see you walk down that aisle before I’m in a wheelchair. In 2007, on a trip to see my other Grandma Mary, we stopped to visit. She was happy to me & Lia, but she quickly ran & gave my boyfriend (at the time) Mike a hug. She said, “I’ve been waiting for this day” and then quickly told him that he better take good care of me. A month later, while in Vegas, Mike proposed to me. Grandma was the 1st person I called. I probably should’ve worded it different because she thought I was going to get hitched in Vegas. I told Mike he wouldn’t want to return to Illinois if we did because he’d have to face Grandma and she wasn’t about to miss seeing me walk down the aisle. A year and a half later, I walked down that aisle and I was so glad I got to share that day with her.

She was always about her family. She loved all her grandbabies and great-grandbabies. She was up early every Christmas making her pies, her stuffing, her banana pudding, and watching us open gifts. No matter if you were new to the family, or didn’t have anywhere to go that day, she made sure you had a gift to open. She loved to take care of everyone else.
It was her love for Grandpa that sets the example for all of us to be a great partner. She cared for him 24/7. If she had to go help friends, go to Rylan’s t-ball game or Skylor’s football game, or shop at yard sales for baby clothes, she always made sure Grandpa was taken care of. It was her love for her children, Grandpa’s children, her grandchildren/great-grandchildren, and Grandpa’s grandchildren, and great-grandchildren that sets the example to be a great parent.

I can’t imagine a world without her. I can’t imagine my life without her. But if she taught us anything, it is that we must remain a family, whether she is here to lead us or not, we must go on…we must live a life she would be proud of, and never let our children, our grandchildren forget her. A woman who did so much for so many others deserves to always be remembered, we owe her that much. In times like this, it would be so easy to find blame or to be mad at God, but amazingly enough I’m not. God only picks the good ones to share heaven with, and now she can watch over and take care of all of us.

We will always love you Grandma.