Last month while we were in Utah for my brother's wedding my grandma passed away. She had been battling cancer for a few years and her health had been slowly degrading, so her passing wasn't a surprise. We are all going to miss her though. She was the mother of 12 children (10 still alive), grandmother to 50 grandchildren, and great-grandmother to 15 little ones. Julia is named after her, Julia Grace Wheat. Robert and I extended our stay in Utah long enough to attend her funeral. I want to just share a
few memories I have of her.
Grandma Sandberg loved family history. When I think about her now I picture her at the Sandberg Ranch telling us stories about our ancestors, like where they used to live and how they came to America and settled in Southern Utah. She was co-head of the committee that oversees the small cemetery where a lot of her ancestors and family members have been buried and just a few months before her death she put together a binder of all the people who were buried there. Now we will have to add her to the binder since it is the same cometary she is buried in. Grandma Sandberg also did a lot of temple work. I'm sure there were a lot of thankful people who welcomed her in the spirit world after she died.
Grandma Sandberg wasn't the type of grandma who would make nice meals for everyone, I guess with 10 kids there wasn't time to make many nice meals, but she did make fantastic rolls. She was very loving though and at her memorial service one of my aunts said she always made you feel like you were special.
A few years ago I did taped interviews with all my grandparents of their lives with the intent of transcribing the interview so everyone can read it (so far I have only finished one, Gr
andpa Sandberg). During that interview realized that Grandma Sandberg and I have a lot in common, mainly our love of reading. I think everyone in my Dad's family who loves to read can thank Grandma Sandberg for it. My dad says one of his memories of his mom when he was a kid was that she was always reading. I even found out during the interview that we had the same favorite book,
Pride and Prejudice.
Like I said, we have a lot of family in the same cemetery where Grandma Sandberg was buried. After the graveside service we got to walk around the cemetery and see where our family members were buried. Here are Julia and I at the tombstone of Julia's other namesake, Julia Ann Orton.
All Robert's pictures were so beautiful, I had a hard time picking which ones to post. I don't think it's possible to take a bad picture at Havasupai. Sounds like they had a great time hiking all over the canyon. There is no road down to the bottom of the canyon, so you either have to backpack or ride horses in for ten miles to the campground, or pay for a helicopter ride in. After you get to the campground you hike around to see all the waterfalls too. It looks like it's worth it though. I hope I can go and see it all someday too!
