Zaino Family Blog: Oh, what a difference a child makes!

I started writing the posting below after we got back from our trip to AZ thinking my grandma had a few more weeks but that was not to be. I got a call at 6am Tuesday, February 1st from my Uncle saying my grandma, J.R.'s great grandma had passed away. I flew down to AZ to be with my grandpa for a week and tried to help as much as I could. I'm now back home and it's slowly becoming a reality that my sweet sweet grandma is gone. Our family will never be the same. I love you grandma. Below is the post I started a few weeks ago:

This past weekend was one of the hardest times of my life. My grandma, J.R.'s great grandma has terminal cancer. She's been fighting it for 5 years and now it's come to the end of the road. My grandma raised me from age 11, when my mother passed away. My grandmother took the place of my mother without a misstep and I was so lucky to have such a wonderful woman and hero in my life. Here are some family pictures we took back in November of 2007, before J.R.

Tony had a wonderful idea that the entire family (including Toots) hop in the car and head down to spend some time with my grandma. J.R. added so much happiness to the time spent with my grandma. She's too weak to communicate but would smile when she would hear or see J.R. She had what was probably her last lunch at the table with J.R. and boy did he put on a show. He counted to ten and said the alphabet (with my help of course) for my grandma. He continually told my grandma that, "big goggle was sleeping" aka the goalie went off the ice between periods. We also had conversations about his friends at daycare while my grandma watched and smiled. He made everyone laugh without knowing it he lifted the spirits of all of us whenever he was around. I don't see my grandpa smile anymore except when J.R. is around or when he talks about how smart and lucky we are to have such a wonderful little boy. Friends of my grandparents are stopping by saying how happy my grandma was to spend this last Christmas with us, especially J.R., she loves him so! I brought J.R. to "nana's room" so he could say "goodbye" before we left to come home, I can still hear him now, "bye bye Nana" while he waved and had a big smile on his face. My grandma smiled!

I plan to go back to Arizona next week by myself. I am going to miss my little boy, who's so joyful and full of innocence. J.R. you will never know how you brightened one the of saddest weekends of our lives. Thank you!

Here are a few pictures of J.R. I took this weekend. What a hoot!