I leaned over to take off her glasses and lay them down beside her.

I look at old photos and wish I could remember some of the people I see. Grandma Daisy Lee's smile tells me that I missed knowing someone special.

Although I don't remember her, she knew me when I was young.  Here, Grandma Daisy is holding me and George is standing in the background.

What I do remember is a funeral in Great Uncle Noble's back yard.  Uncle Noble's back yard was also Grandma Daisy's back yard.  I remember Daddy carrying me past an open casket, with Grandmother inside.  But as I do research, I find all the photos of Grandma Daisy shows a heavier face than I remembered in the casket.  How could it have been her when I have a mental image of a thin face when her face was fuller?  I have been researching photos to see if I can find a face that matches my memory.

The memory is vivid.  I understood death.  After all, I lived on a farm.  Even at 3, I had seen our cats and dogs kill animals and eat them.  I had seen other dead animals.  

From Daddy's arms I looked down into the casket and saw Grandma lying there with her glasses on and eyes closed.  This struck me as odd.  People simply do not need glasses when their eyes are closed.  I leaned over to take off her glasses and lay them down beside her. As I leaned over and down, reaching for her glasses, Daddy immediately tightened his hold.  This pulled me back upright in his arms.  He did a quiet, "No, shhh".  

Years later I asked Daddy and Mother about the funeral.  They didn't remember the incident, probably because to Daddy I was just leaning,  He probably wasn't even aware that I was reaching.  As a parent, I know that when a child leans over, the reflex is to tighten grip immediately and Daddy probably pulled me upright before he was even aware that I was reaching.  But when I asked them questions many years later, they assured me that Grandma Daisy died when I was 3, so it had to be her funeral I remembered.

What puzzled me was that Grandma Daisy's photos are of a woman with a plump face.  Was it really Grandma Daisy that I remember.

Then I found this photo.  Yes, it was Grandma Daisy!  Her face is thinner here, just two years before she died.  

Left to right: Grandma Daisy, (Great) Uncle Noble, (Great) Aunt Lucy, Lila Jane, and CK Lee.

My Aunt Bertie, her granddaughter and my Daddy's sister, tells me that Grandma Daisy died in 1959.