Love and Sausage Gravy

Today we celebrated the life of my grandmother, Ollie Sallie Colley. Here are a few photos and also a link to her obituary. 

This morning before her funeral service, I sat down and wrote a few words about just one memory I will always have of her. 

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Love and Sausage Gravy

 

Your eyes peep open slightly just to see the orange glow coming from the night light next to the bed. You hear the beep, beep, beep of the microwave in the kitchen and as the smell of sausage floats down the hallway to your room, you know Grandma is up and at it again, feeding her family before they head off to church. If you’re quiet, you can get up and walk down to the familiar, “Good mornin’, Darlin, come an’ give me some sugar.”, and you see my grandma, smiling, sitting at the desk in the kitchen reading from her Bible.

My Grandma Colley was a giver. Born and raised in Virginia, her main goal was family and make sure everyone was well taken care of, and especially well-fed. She spent hours and hours in the kitchen making meals for us and meals to take to her church. Everything from sausage gravy, green beans, homemade strawberry jam, no-bake chocolate oatmeal cookies, 7 layer jello, molasses cake, you name it, she made it and she didn’t need recipes for most of it. She knew it by heart, methodically mixing and measuring. If you were to go and watch her, it was sort of like a well-rehearsed dance that only she knew. 

 

Once everyone was up on Sunday morning, you would sit down to a feast. When I was a lot younger, I remember waffle breakfasts. She had this big silver waffle maker and the light would turn off when the waffles were ready. Some of the batter would spill over the sides and make these extra dough sticks on the edges and my brothers and I would be in competition to find the biggest one. I’m not sure how exactly Grandma ate herself because she was up and down the whole meal getting things for us and making sure our plates were full. If your plate was empty, she would immediately pass something over to you to fill it.

 

I am going to miss her hugs, her beautiful smile and her magnificent food, but I will always remember my grandma’s devotion for her family. Family was the greatest gift that you could have. She relished all her time with her family. I’m so glad my daughter, Violet, was able to meet her and I hope that I can pass on to her the biggest lessons that I have learned from my grandma. Love your family and show them that every day. Treasure each moment you have together.

Rest in peace, Grandma Colley. I love you so much.

Obituary for Ollie Sallie Colley

 

My grandma and grandpa were married for 70 years.

 

Still a happy couple

 

She loved her family so much. She's here with my grandpa, my Uncle David (left), Uncle Steve (right) and my mom (Sally)

 

Loving couple

 

She loved babies. Here's the first time she held Violet.

 

 

Four Generations