Janet Irene Lucyk - September 19, 1936 - February 22, 2011

My beloved Grandmother, Janet Lucyk, went to be with the Lord at 3pm yesterday, February 22, 2011. I have definitely not had or taken the time to fully process this profound loss. I know that myself and everyone who loves Grandma Lucyk will feel the pain of her loss at many points in the coming days, months and years.

I haven't lost a grandparent since I was 11 and my grandpa (Janet's husband) died. Of course I was sad at the time, and I still wish I'd gotten to know him better, but at such a young age, it didn't hit me like this has. I have had many friends lose their grandparents and while I was of course sad for them, I always thought that this loss would be a little less jarring, more expected, and overall easier to take than it has been. Mostly, that's because I expected to have many more years with my Grandma Lucyk.

I know everyone always talks well of the dead (rightly so), but personally, I have always thought that people tend to exaggerate how amazing people are after their death. However, I have to say that over the course of Grandma's illness, I have not heard ONE thing said about her that desn't ring completely true. In fact, many of them are things I WISH I had told her while she was alive, or at least thought about enough to be thankful for.

My earliest memories of Grandma Lucyk are from visiting her house, the one my dad and his 3 siblings grew up in. I remember going to the back bedroom and watching Casper the Friendly Ghost. Grandma taught me to color by drawing a dark line around the edges with the color and then coloring in lightly in the middle. She always had a canister of Planter's Cheese Balls. They had a trash compacter, and Grandma would always let me push the button. We played marbles, and the cat-eye one was my favorite. I remember the kerosene heater they always kept in the living room. It had exposed hot coils and was an all around hazard for little children, but this was the 80's and health hazards were a lot more prevalent than they are now :). I also remember the year that I couldn't sleep on Christmas Eve and discovered the truth about Santa. And finally, I remember, at 10 years old, forcing my parents and grandparents to teach me how to play euchre. I didn't care that I was "too young," I wanted to be part of the games.

And that's what I was, from the time I first learned about "tricks" and "trump," "bowers" and "the left," I never missed an opportunity to play cards or games with my grandma. Not 2 months ago, we sat around the table in our living room playing hand and foot, 313, and Blokus. We went through a phase when Skip-bo was our favorite.

Grandma Lucyk was always a "cool Grandma." When Grandpa died, she got a new condo and wanted everything light-colored. Nothing depressing, she said. She got a black cheery colored Dodge Intrepid and I thought I had the coolest grandma in the world. I still thought that less than 2 years ago when she got her latest lease, a gold Lincoln MKX. She's a hip lady :)

Every time I asked my mom who was coming to our house for the holidays, I was always so happy to find out that Grandma Lucyk would be there. She just brought a great energy to every room she was in.

Even though she lost her husband at the young age of 57, she never seemed interested in finding someone else (even though we would have supported her). She loved her freedom, being able to do what she wanted to do, when she wanted to do it. She went to California, Vegas, Florida, the casino, Yellowstone and New York City, and that's just in the last few years! She spent 3 weeks in January in Florida with her sisters. They went on a swamp tour, walked in the ocean, and (I'd imagine), drank their fair share of red wine. But red wine wasn't always Grandma's favorite, it was black Russian's when I was a kid. I think I'll have one in her honor sometime soon :)

This past Christmas was a typical one with Grandma Lucyk. As usual, she came to our house after the Lucyk Christmas Eve party and stayed with us all of Christmas day. We opened Christmas presents, Grandma sitting patiently by, opening her presents when prompted. We played games, ate good food, and even sat down and watched Ernest Saves Christmas. I fell asleep during the movie, but Grandma stayed awake with Taylor and at the end of the movie, she said, "That's a really funny movie!" endearing her even more to Taylor :) We played one last game of Grandma's favorite game, Hand and Foot, before going to bed. The next morning, we left our house early for a ski trip in Northern Michigan, dropping Grandma off along the way. This was the last time I saw her, but I look back on it with great joy and am thankful that Grandma lived such a good life right up until the time of her death.

Rest in peace, Grandma Lucyk. Or, since I know you will, enjoy heaven for all that it's worth!