Up until the ripe old age of 13, I had seven grandparents (four regular grandparents and three great grandparents).
I was a lucky kid.

The worst part about getting older is loosing grandparents.
I have only two left.
Being Memorial Day, I want to write about my five "missing" grandparents . . .

Henry & Margaret Boomsma,Great Grandparents
Often refered to as "grandma and grandpa Boo"
Memories include a toy closet which included a battery operated toy stun-gun (w/o the batteries). As a kid I called them "the grandma(pa) with the gun in the closet" !!

Jody Vander Woude Grandmother
She died unexpectedly - two weeks before Christmas. I found out about her death just after lunch (macaroni-n-cheese and root beer). I was able to control the tears until after dinner (chicken enchaladias with rice) when I checked my mail - - there was a Christmas Card from her which she signed "hurry home."

Hilda Beukinga Great Gram
Everyone loves great gram. (note the present tense!) We went to her house almost every Saturday for lunch. We brought Jr.'s Hot Dogs and she made blueberry muffins (or ice cream!)for dessert. Afterwards we played legos, read the commics she saved for us each week, and played with her magnifying glass. (The fine art of learning how to start fires with a magnifying glass was learned at Great Gram's house!)

Paul Alkeam My Granpa
I still find myself mourning Grandpa A. I miss him so much. My strongest Granpa A. memory is Sunday pepermints after the weekly children's sermon.
As we walked back to our pew, he'd slip a pepermints to us (sneaky - very sneaky) as we passed by him. In 5th grade - when I decided 5th grade was too old for children's sermons - he sliped an extra one to my sister to give to me. (Because 5th grade is not too old for pepermints!)