Childhood Memories With Grandma

She gets up while it is still night; she provides food for her family.

—Proverbs 31:15

When, in the weeks before her death, the cousins shared some of our childhood memories with Grandma Hybels, three things came up over and over: blueberries, cinnamon toast, and beach glass. Grandma made the very best blueberry pie, and we all remember picking blueberries with Grandma at DeGrandchamp’s in South Haven, which is widely known as the Blueberry Capital of the World, complete with a Blueberry Festival, Blueberry Parade, and Blueberry Queen.

At Grandma’s cottage we ate blueberries straight out of the bowl in the mornings, and in muffins all day long, but our favorite was her fresh blueberry pie, with a scoop of Sherman’s Ice Cream. In the mornings, we all loved having cinnamon bread from Bunde’s Bakery in the sunroom, the toaster and the butter dish in the corner always ready for us.

One of our favorite things to do at Grandma’s cottage was to search for beach glass, because Grandma collected it in jars like a precious treasure. Every few days we’d take out all the pieces and spread them out on the dining room table with her, and she acted as though we’d found gold every time.