My grandmother was sick my whole life. Having suffered rheumatic fever as a child, she never fully recovered and it seemed every year a new malady was added to her list of medical conditions. Every Christmas people would say, "We have to make Christmas special, this will be mother's last Christmas..." But from the age of 4, I would always say "Grandma's not going to die. She won't die until she sees my first born..."
When my son was born, grandma couldn't see because of cataracts. This was okay with me, if she couldn't see, she couldn't die. At this time I lived 60 miles away and didn't see my grandmother often, but when I did I would place my son on her lap and she would play with his hair. During one of these visits she said "Oh my God, he looks just like your father..." This really upset me because no one told me she could see.
The next morning I heard my 7 month old son playing in his crib. It was early for him to be up and he was laughing like I never heard him laugh before. I went in there to see what he was so amused with and there stood my grandmother. She was beautiful and healthy. Her body wasn't crippled up and she was young. She looked at me and said "Goodbye pumpkin..." then the phone rang. She said "That's your mother, tell her I always loved her..." and then she was gone.
I picked up the phone and said "Hi mom" before she said anything. She then told me grandma had died. I told her I already knew that and then I relayed the message. This made my mother cry, as my grandmother had never said those words to my mother. It's not that my grandmother never told anyone she loved them, she just didn't tell my mother. In her family, my mother had been the one child singled out for abuse and she hadn't lived a very happy life. It was the closure my mother needed and she now knows that she was loved, although it took me many years to come to terms with her death. For the longest time I believed she died because of me. If I wouldn't have brought my son to visit her, she wouldn't have seen him and she wouldn't have died. But I know realize it wasn't my fault, it was her time.
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❤ 😭