To followup on yesterday's entry, these are the obituaries for my maternal grandparents. They are both from the Richmond Times-Dispatch.  As you can see, my Mom's family has used Joseph Bliley Funeral Home for years.

My grandfather died before I was born.  In fact, my sister is the only one of the four of us who is counted among the grandchildren in his obituary. I know about him, but I didn't know him.

However, I do remember my grandmother.  She was the only one of my grandparents that I knew. She used expressions like "two shakes of a lamb's tail" and "I'll ramsquizzle you through a buzzard's wing."  And she always brought life savers with her on her visits.  She also desperately wanted me to stop biting my fingernails.  She bought me a little kit containing a file and clippers.  She told me that biting my nails would make my knuckles knobby.  None of that worked.

I remember staying at her house when I was little.  She later lived with my Aunt Ruth and I would see her when I stayed with them, which was usually a week or so in the summer.  My first plane trip was with her from Winston-Salem to Richmond when I was about 12 years old.  I was in college when she died and I flew from Raleigh to Richmond for her funeral.  It was probably the second time I had flown.