Grammy (Bertie Hayes)

Hi everyone...

As I'm sure most of you are aware, back in December I lost my nana. She was my maternal grandmother, and one of the most excellent women to ever reside on this planet.  

On Tuesday, another remarkable woman went to be with the Lord. 

My paternal grandmother Bertie Marlene Hayes (78), passed away a little before 4pm on July 21st, 2015. 

She is preceded in death by her husband, Grady Wickline, who passed away many years ago when he was just 44, but has never been forgotten; and her mother, Virginia Pruiett. She is also preceded by a sweet puppy dog named Mokie, whom I shared a birthday with. 

She is survived by her sons: Denny, Don, and Danny (Sandy); her sisters: Sue (Bill), Kay, Iris, and Diane; her grandchildren: Robert, Julia, & Jennifer (Danny), Jonathan & Destiny (Don), and Tori & Nicholaus (Danny.) 

Bertie will be missed by not just her family, but by people who knew her through the work that she did in church. She was passionate about her faith, and it showed to the very last moment. Though not perfect, by any means, I believe that she's tried to live her life in a God-loving manner for the majority of her life. 

For details about services, please contact me through Facebook. If you do not have me on Facebook and know Bertie personally, please leave a comment with an email address that I will be able to reach you at asap. 

Thank you everyone for your thoughts and your prayers. This was very unexpected, and after the past couple of years, something that my family is trying to cope with. Loss has become such a prevalent thing, but I am thankful for ever single memory I have to hold on to of people that no longer reside with me in body. 

I am so overjoyed that someday I will see Grammy again, as well as Nana and Grandad. I miss them all terribly, and I've caught myself wondering a lot today if people can miss people when they're in Heaven. 

~ 

Okay... My reasoning for difference in the way I wrote the first part is that I thought that her obituary didn't do her justice. She was a FANTASTIC woman, and deserved more than a few words and a mumble about a possible service. 

Thank you Jesus, for making me the writer in this family! 

Anyways... I'd like to say another huge thank you to everyone on Facebook that has commented or messaged about her passing. You guys are making our heavy hearts so much lighter, and bringing small smiles into dark days. 

A very special thank you to Scott and Paula... I couldn't have survived Tuesday without you guys. I am so very blessed to be friends with people like you. I know I've said it a million times, but you guys are awesome. :) 

Another very special thank you to my RFKC and church family... Your prayers have brought us peace in this time of mourning. Thank you all so much. I couldn't have made it through the past few days without you guys either. 

And my last thank you goes out to Blue Ridge Funeral Home, for making everything run so smoothly and being well-educated in what you guys are supposed to do. It has made this week more bearable, even if it is in a slightly morbid way. 

~

People keep asking me why I haven't cried a lot over this, so I'm just going to be forward about it. 
One, I am my mother's daughter. I channel hurt into anger instead of tears these days, which makes the clean-up process easier for me, but not necessarily for those that I direct said anger towards. 
And two, I'm kind of numb. I'm so used to this feeling of grief, because we just now had nana's memorial service about a month ago. I had just gotten over that overwhelming cloud of grief, and went spiraling into another one. 

I'm just kind of...used to it. That sounds awful, but it's the truth. I'm not sure what normalcy is, but I hope to find it at some point here soon again. 

School starts in a couple of weeks, and I'm gonna keep my head high because this is my senior year and I need to be focused. 

Also, I went to camp last week. 
I am not currently in the best mood to share stories about camp, but I promise that as soon as I can catch my breath, I will. I will tell you this much... Camp was one of the most humbling experiences of my entire life. I cannot wait to further assist with the Royal Family Kids program, both camps and club. God has really placed this whole organization on my heart, so I guess I'm in it for the long-run now. 

Anyways, thank you guys for reading this and just bearing with me during this time in my life. I promise that I'll be more myself sooner or later, but I am blessed to be surrounded by patient people. 

I love you guys!!! 

-Tori :)

p.s. I have O F F I C I A L L Y transferred all of my other blog posts to this website. So, 1600 reads and counting, I can't wait to see what this chapter of blogging has in store for me. Thank you guys for reading and supporting me, it means a lot!!! 

New Location as of July 10th, 2015

Hello everyone!

Yes, this is still Tori.

(OnlyMeJustT as some of you know me, because I really hope some of my Wattpad followed me to this site... If not, I appreciate all of my faithful readers that were brave enough to click this link to read this post!)

I am currently in the process of transferring all of my previous blog entries over to this website, and it's taking me a blue dozen years to do that. So, at some point, all of my old blog posts will be here. Most of them are dated appropriately, so if you're new here, go find "Where I've Been" if you're partial to reading numerically.

Otherwise, continue on for your reading pleasure.

A few quick things before I close and publish this (MY FIRST OFFICIAL BLOG ON BLOGGER POST, WOO!) post.

1. I am no longer updating my Wattpad blog. It was fun while it lasted, and I appreciate all 1,500 reads that I received over there. Thank you all so much for the support.

2. I made this blog because, as I've afore mentioned, I intend on going into journalism in college. As a Senior now, I want to take the fun loving side of blogging and add some professional airs to it. I hope that makes sense to you guys, but if not, I'm sorry.

3. IT'S STILL ME. 100% ME. I just realized that I wanted to reach a bigger crowd, because I want to make a difference. This doesn't really have anything to do with views, or reads, or publicity... This is just about me and where I'm going and how I'm gonna get there.

4. I'm going to camp next week! So after this post, and probably another, you won't hear out of me until next weekend unless we're personal friends via social media or something.

5. If you guys were wondering why my blogging was becoming scarce, this is why! I've contemplated changing websites for a while now... Mostly just because Blogger is easier to access on mobile devices, and you don't need an account to read stuff. So yeah. You guys are oh-so welcome!

6. (This is the last number, yay.) I also changed platforms so that I could post more Biblical and controversial posts. I am a Christian, and I kind of have a thing for arguing sometimes, so there you go!

I hope those lovely bullet points (well, makeshift bullet points, I'm still learning here!) made sense to you guys!

I love you all so much. I'm really looking forward to this year and this new chapter in my life. Moving my blog is just the first step of many.

-Tori :D