Early Sunday morning my grandma and my daughter’s namesake, Nora Leeta Reilly aka Mimi, passed away. We pronounced it Mimee and not Meemee. She was in south Texas living in a nursing home and peacefully drifted away. She had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease for about 12-13 years. Mimi was my last living grand parent and was the 2nd Nora in her family. Her mother, my great grandma, was Nora as well. There are many things I remember about Mimi:

Always getting a package from Mimi and Happy (my grandpa) during holidays and most importantly, Halloween.
Spending all of my vacations in South Texas from an early age until junior high or so. I remember wondering when the vacations would end because it felt like we were there for months! You can only light so many ants on fire with a magnifying glass, or hit a tennis ball against the garage so many times!
Walking down the alley to the store to get an Icey. This was the highlight of my day.
Mimi or Happy putting out a bowl of milk for the 30 (seriously) stray cats that lived under the house and making the “brrrrrrrdt” (come and get it) noise.
Stealing Mimi’s stash of Double Mint gum from her top drawer. I never knew what else was in that drawer b/c I wasn’t tall enough to see, but I knew that’s where the stash was.
The AM radio blaring in the kitchen from 7 am until 10:30 pm every night. News all day and night. Awesome for a 7 year old who was already musically advanced!
Mimi and Happy drinking 15 cups of coffee a day. From 7 am until 10:30 at night…listening to the stinking news!
Mimi and Happy sleeping in separate rooms (weird!)
Finding wine or liquor in their pantry and my mom telling me that it was only used for cooking. Good job mom. I bought it…for a while.
Thinking that Happy looked like Higgins from Magnum PI. Happy was always dressed up in a short sleeve shirt with 75 pens in the pocket, slacks and wingtips no matter what time of day it was.
Mimi was a librarian and I remember eating lunch with her at school. I guess I was too young to be at school myself. Why do I remember eating a burrito and drinking milk at that school? That's really vivid and extremely gross now!
Mimi wearing “cat” old school glasses.
Going to church in Edinburgh, being one of 2 kids in class and having to read a scripture and talk in class. Ah, that was nerve racking!
Uncle Mike and Pat coming in late for communion and then sneaking out the back…ha!
Timing our departure from Houston to Edinburgh so that we made it to church in every small town in between.
Edinburgh c of c holding the record for singing hymns the slowest of any church in the world.
Mimi using the word “britches” instead of pants.
Old women coming over to “visit” with Mimi and mom, or rather, sit around for hours and hours drinking coffee and talking until I went insane. Maybe this is why I burned ants with a magnifying glass.
Getting hit by a pitch in the eye during baseball tryouts on their 50th wedding anniversary. Where are the pictures that show that awesome black eye, mom?
And many, many more…

Mimi lived with us during my senior year of high-school. I remember her taking all of my phone messages on her crossword puzzle/jumble books. I wouldn’t get messages until weeks after they were taken! This was the beginning of her Alzheimer’s. She always called my girlfriend at the time by the wrong name. That was funny! She also got in bed with my dad by mistake one night when she got confused! Hello!

The best memory was when I saw her last summer (for the first time in about 10 years!) and Angie met her for the first time while she was pregnant with Nora. Kyle and his family, Uncle Pat, Uncle Mike and Aunt Patty were there with her. She couldn’t talk and for the most part didn’t appear to know what was going on. So I thought. I think she was just fooling us! She would chuckle in her patented fashion just like she always did and play with her hands that wore all those same rings that I had remembered. That was her way of communicating with us. My sisters got down to see her several months after we did. It’s funny how we did not see her for so long, but after we went, she passed away. It’s like she was just waiting to tell us good bye.