Cake for Nan

Yesterday morning my beautiful Nan passed away suddenly after having another stroke. In February we were wondering how long she would last without having Pop around and hated to think of her being alone without him, for too many years.

Nan suprised us just after Pop passed away and seemed to be doing really well. We knew she missed Pop so much though and every time you would mention Pop's name she would have tears well up in her eyes. She hasn't been able to communicate very well since her first stroke, but it was obvious how much she loved and missed Pop. Whenever they were together they would be holding each other's hands.

The way I remember Nan the best is when she lived at their house in Dunorlan. She absolutely loved her garden and we would often go up there to say hi and to play in the yard, picking and eating all their fresh vegies straight out of the garden, and popping Nan's flowers (which she hated us doing!).

I'm actually really happy for Nan and Pop as they are now together again and no longer in their frail old bodies. When Dad told me yesterday morning I felt sad that I won't see Nan again for a little while, but so happy that she is again with Pop. They are amazing examples to me and I love and will miss them both so much. My boys are so blessed to have known their great grandparents and to know what amazing people they both are.

Chrish reminded me yesterday of Nan's carrot jelly which we weren't too keen on, but one thing which we did LOVE was her sponge cakes. She usually had a sponge cake on hand and if you came to visit she would pull it out. There were many times when we would visit just to have a piece of Nan's famous sponge! :) When I told Harri yesterday that Nan had died he said straight away 'oh she's in Heaven with Pop now!'. When I told Jalen he had a few tears and after school he told me that he had to go to the toilet during class time to have a bit of a cry. When he got back his friends asked him what was wrong and he told them about Nan. They were lovely to him and he said to them 'just don't mention the words 'Nan', 'sponge cake' or 'biscuits' or I will get upset again!'. The boys used to love visiting Nan and Pop at their home in Deloraine and having a piece of sponge cake and raiding Nan's biscuit container.

While the boys were at school yesterday I decided that we should do something to celebrate Nan's life, so I whipped up a sponge cake using Nan's recipe. It was no where near as good as Nan's would've been but the boys were very excited to come home to have a piece of cake for Nan.