Laura Louise Finch Bingham, my very sweet grandmother, who finally got to go home to her Heavenly Father after a 96 year long "buggy ride" on earth. Her funeral was a beautiful tribute to her life, her humor, her wit, her enthusiasm and her love of life and her family. I loved hearing memories of her today, and I even learned a few things that, somehow, I had never been told. To me, she will always be Grandma...to Eddie, "Grandma Grape", but she was so much more. A daughter, a sister, a student, a lover of dancing, a doting aunt, a caretaker, a wife of a farmer, a hard worker, a crack-up, a mother, a friend, a servant of God and of others.
It's not very often you get to hear the word "sh%$" from the pulpit, but it was an appropriate memory shared between many of her grandchildren. I know Grandma would have loved to see the bishop squirm in his chair as much as I did. Somehow when Grandma called you a "cute, little sh%$!", it sounded as endearing as anything else she could say. I need to learn that trick.
I am so thankful to my sweet Aunt Nancy, Uncle Mike and my cousins who have taken care of her with such love and gentleness. I could never tell them thank you enough.
Grandma said she felt like the last leaf on the tree, and the wind was blowing. I am so thankful that she is at rest and happily reunited with her husband, parents, brother, sisters and friends that have waited for her anxiously for all these years. Grandma endured her old age with the grace, charm, tenderness, affection and gratitude that most of us are lacking in our prime. It's an honor to be her grand daughter, and to belong to her legacy in some small way. I hope that someday she will be as proud of me, as I am of her. Love you Grandma!
