Eunice Catherine Green Trone

March 5, 1915-October 22, 2009

My loving grandmother has passed away peacefully to return home. I know she continues life in the Spirit World with her husband and many other family members that have gone before her. This is not a sad time, yet a time of rejoicing as she lived a full life 94 years worth!! I remember her visits to our home with joy. I especially remember anticipating the big yellow airplane, the banana plane as we called it, that would land and bring her to our home. She was always kind and ALWAYS had life savers in her purse to share! When we visited her home, she had one closet in the hallway FILLED with games. There was never a dull moment when she was around.

I was able to attend her funeral in Mesa last week. What a family reunion! All my siblings were able to attend AND most my cousins were there too. What great time I had visiting and hanging out! I have not been to Mesa since I was a young child. It was fun to see how perspective changes from child to adult. One thing I never realized was how close my grandmother and uncle lived to the mesa temple. The first morning I woke and knew I had to be near the Mesa temple. I googled the directions and gasped to find I was only 1.5 miles away! Straight shot down main street! What a perfect run, that turned out to be! Here is a photo taken from my phone.

One thing that impresses me with downtown Mesa is the lack of chain restaurants. There were family owned businesses all over. I don't think I have ever seen so many different taco restaurants! It would have been fun to try a few. I went to Cheesecake Factory for lunch with my cousins, and Marilyn's family one afternoon. I must say, I would rather have gone for tacos. The service was unusually slow and terrible. The Thai lettuce wraps I ate for lunch were scrumptious though! Although the cheesecakes I sampled were delicious, I am still partial to white chocolate raspberry truffle! I must admit though, the long wait we had was enjoyable because I was visiting with my cousins the entire time! It has been forever since we have all been together! We must change that!

This photo reminded me of the days living in Penang. My cousin who grew up in Mesa now lives in Idaho. Apparently Blue Bell makes some incredible ice cream not available in Idaho so.....he bought some and packaged it with dry ice ready for the drive home! It must be pretty incredible to go through the trouble! What a great advertising campaign. I will have look in our stores to see if it is available.

Wednesday evening, Philip, my mother and I drove to Tucson to visit Charles and Carrie. They took us out to an Ethiopian Restaurant. The menu items sounded very similar to Indian food. They even serve the food with injera, like naan or a tortilla that you use to scoop the food and eat! We tried chicken, beef, vegetable curry and a lentil stew. They were delicious!! So yummy that we ate the plate!! We were treated to some of the infamous Blue Bell blueberry cheesecake ice cream for dessert. I must admit, it was pretty tasty!