Really these photos I took of where I left her were for myself, my cousins, Mom and aunt. I am just going to put in the highlights. I already wrote a post about her and travel, my first blog post. There are some things I have kept from my childhood that I cherish, all happen to be things she sent or brought home from travel. A few of the highlights are a stuffed koala (I think out of actual koala hair? :/) from Australia, it still smells the same as it has all my life, a Russian nesting doll (says made in the U.S.S.R. on the bottom) I love to open it and smell the inside, a small Russian nest with small wooden eggs, a small silk horse from China, and a post card from France.
I posted this already but this is the photo of the last visit I had with my grandma alive. I can remember her smell as I write this. It was a long and fairly lucid visit.
Turkey:
We were only in the Istanbul airport and it felt disrespectful but I just put some on the carpet of the airport. I think she'd want to at least visit it. This was the first time we'd seen Paul after all our time in Europe, we had overlapping layovers and meet in the airport. He handed me the jar of ashes and I was surprised at the rush of emotion I felt holding them the first time. This was the first time I'd ever touched cremation ashes. I was surprised at the texture of the ash- gritty, of course, but also very fine.
Tanzania:
The garden in front of the B&B
From the hot air balloon as we silently moved over the Serengeti. I think she would have liked it very much.
Zanzibar:
The blindingly white sand, warm saline water washing my feet, as I looked out into the green and blue hues of the Indian Ocean.
Uganda:
The mouth of Nile. I think this would have been another top favorite for her, besides the Serengeti.
Dubai
Along the street. Not very romantic.
Sri Lanka
This isn't where I put the ashes. I put them off to the left edge of the grassy area behind the pool, overlooking the lake where the Asian elephants often bathed. I thought I'd taken a photo, but I can't find it.
Bangkok
In the river Chao Phraya River that runs through Bangkok.
Taiwan
The rice patty of a town we stayed in.
Maybe this is creepy but I put a pinch in this floral arrangement in the lobby our hotel in Taoyuan. I just really liked it and thought I should do it with my orchids when I got home.
Home:
In this photo, I am having coffee with Grandma at home. Years before Grandma died, she gave me this blue tea pot of one of my great grandma's. When I first moved to the new Portland house I kept shuffling her small, round the world (RTW), bag of ashes (I decided not to mix them with the other non-RTW ashes) around the house. I'd sort of have a mental conversation with them. In the end I put them in this little tea pot. I think the best final place for them will be off the Yaquina Bay Bridge. The Yaquina Bay and the bridge is the stunning view we all grew up with from her window of her home. We all loved it and that view, that bridge brings me much comfort. There are funny stories about it from long ago. This coffee cup is one I took from her house (after she died). I love the look of it and actually it is what she kept her bacon grease in and there are even metal marks, all over the inner lower half, where she'd dig it out. I remember when I found the cups (often there were two) in the fridge door and being grossed out by them and it explained part of the smell the fridge always had.
The view of the bridge from the other side (not from her house) on the last time I was in Newport.
The other thing I asked for of my Grandma's- her passports. 32 years of passports with at least 59 stamps.
