Catch-Up Post 3 of 3

When Grandpa Cowan died, I was sad for our loss, but I felt sorrow for Grandma. She and Grandpa had spent the last 60 years together and almost all of those years in the same home. When Grandma died last month, I was again, sad for our loss, but this time I felt a sense of "thank goodness". Her physical ailments and her loneliness had been relieved. I also KNOW without a doubt that they are enjoying the afterlife together again.

I haven't always been so unwavering in the belief in the afterlife. I believed, but I also questioned. Then one night, I had a dream. I was riding my bike along 5th Street in downtown Sedalia and I looked across the street. There was Grandpa, my dad, and a third man I didn't recognize. They were all young and about the same age, smiling and waving at me. There was joy there in those three men that I cannot describe, but I felt it. They were chuckling a little almost as if amused by my shock to see them standing there. When I woke up I knew it wasn't just a dream. I don't mean to get all weird but I feel very strongly that I'd glimpsed a small piece of Grandpa's heaven.

I debated whether or not to tell Grandma about my dream. I didn't want to cause her pain or make her feel sad. Ultimately, I decided to tell with the thought that it just might bring her some of the same comfort it brought me. When I told her the story, she was smiling. I explained that I didn't recognize the third person and she asked "Was it Bill?" (Grandpa's brother). I really think it was! "I have dreams, too," Grandma confided.

And so, I want to end this post dedicated to James P. Cowan, Jr. and Ethel L. Cowan and some of the memories and life lessons I will carry with me:

*Rocking out to "Elvira" in their kitchen *cream cheese on saltine crackers * As the World Turns *picnics on the back patio *stilts and crutches *windows open and summer night sounds (trains, cicadas, crickets) *"The Price is Right *road trips *roadside parks on said road trips *Sarah's Rice Crispy treats *Christmas *The "blue" room *digging for coal in the garden *climbing trees *the insanely way-to-high-up tree house *homemade bubbles *wash tub fun *Grandpa's shock when I wanted a Michael Jackson pocket folder from Places *Benny Hill *Grandpa trying to pop popcorn in a metal pot in the microwave *bullion *Sarah and I laughing at Grandpa's underwear hanging on the clothesline *time capsules *Taco Grande and all of the antics Sarah and I would pull to get to go there *good things happen to good people *pray *it really is the small things *grandma watching grandpa like a hawk on previously mentioned road trips *hotels with pools *Tarheel *grandpa's "table muscles" *the kid table in the kitchen *Grandma giving us catalogs to circle the things we wanted for Christmas *the hand-sewn Barbie wardrobe Grandma made *martin houses *the strawberry patch between the garage and the shed *grandma's zinnia's *LOVE