Remembering Grandma

I was in the kitchen tonight loading the dishwasher and finishing the rest of the dishes by hand and I had a sink full of plastic bags. Well, this might sound funny to most but i washed and dried those bags and hung them over something to finish air drying for the night. I have to tell you growing up i use to laugh when my grandmother did that. I thought why would anyone ever wash a bag? Just get a new one. Well, with the way things are now in the economy and things getting tight for everyone, I thought of grandma and decided to wash them too just like she did. I have washed them probably 3 times and until they get holes in them I will continue to do so.
Bless her heart she even saved bread ties, and now I do too. She is either laughing at me or thankful she taught me something that stuck. Either way, I love her and miss her. Why is it that we don't appreciate people and things until they are gone? When it is to late we realize that we would give anything and everything up to have it/them back.
We should all be thankful every day for everything and the little things we take for granted. My grandmother, I admit growing up would tend to get on your nerves but she had alot of wisdom and the older I got the more I listened to her. We would say she couldn't hear anything we were saying but she heard every word and pretended she couldn't hear us I think. I loved hearing her stories of growing up and how hard it was. My grandma grew up in the depression and that is how she became a pack rat and didn't throw anything out, her thing was "you might need it someday." She always said we live in a throw away society.
Every time I am in the kitchen now doing something I think of her and would she keep or throw it away. Would she use the celery tops or would she throw away and now I keep them and put them in stir fry that I make. yes, my grandma taught me alot, she just never realized how much I WAS paying attention.
The one thing we did for her was paint her fingernails when she laid in her bed, not knowing if she knew we were there or not but we talked to her anyway. i told her we were painting them just like she wanted. She didn't want to die without looking her best because she never went anywhere without being dressed up. So, we did that for her.
When Hospice (wonderful people) told us she was getting close and we should say our goodbyes,
(not knowing if she could hear us) I leaned over her and told her I love you grandma and she said back as clear as day "I love you too". I then told her to wait by the pearly gates for me and I would see her someday. How I miss my grandma.........but it is in the moments like my kitchen tonight that I take comfort in remembering a wonderful woman.