Joel's Grandma "Mimi" was one of the sweetest, most fun women I've had the pleasure of knowing. She was always happy to see you, and loved her grandchildren very much. I'll never forget the first time I met Mimi. Joel took me to her house and explained to me how Mimi got her name. He told me how she grew up in Detroit and stripped in a club up there and her stage name was "Mimi". Of course, Mimi just went along with it and smiled. She finally started laughing and told him he was full of it. Joel liked to kid around with Mimi, and she took it from him like the best of them.
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| Joel and Mimi 2009 |
In the 9 years I knew Mimi, she slowly went downhill, but never complained. Joel says that she wasn't the same after his Grandpa passed away. From what I've been told, her and Wendell liked to go out with friends, have a few cocktails, play cards, and dance. Joel says that Mimi would always have lunch ready for them each day, and she was a very good cook. Mimi had pretty much stopped cooking by the time I met Joel, but she would still make deviled eggs occasionally for family events. And if Mimi brought the deviled eggs, you had to be careful when eating them. She was known to leave some of the egg shells in them!
There are so many good and funny memories of Mimi. She was a closet smoker, and you always had to be watching for smoke when you walked into her house. If she saw a car pull into the driveway, she would hide her cigarette wherever she could find a place. The problem with this was, she wouldn't get the cigarette put all the way out sometimes, so if she stuck the ashtray and cigarette in the end table drawer, there may be smoke coming out of the drawer! I don't know how many times Joel had to clean the garbage disposal out at Mimi's because that was one of her favorite places to hide her cigarettes when someone would walk in.
Mimi liked to go to the Country Club. One day, after eating lunch at the Country Club, she put on her coat and left. Once she got to Jennifer's, she realized it wasn't her coat, rather, it was someone else's coat that she had taken by mistake instead of her own from the coat closet! Jim had to take the other coat back to the Country Club that day! I don't know how many times we would take Mimi somewhere and you would be able to hear her coat "belt" (the fabric belt that ties around a winter coat) slapping the side of the vehicle. I don't think she ever got all of her coat into the car!
It seemed like something would always go wrong at weddings for Mimi. At Jennifer and Brian's wedding, Mimi walked in and sat down beside me in a pew. I looked down, and I could see the top half of Mimi's underwear sticking out of her skirt! I thought that she just didn't get her skirt zipped up, but when I went to zip it, the zipper was broke! Of course, Mimi just laughed while I tugged and yanked on her zipper. I think we ended up tieing something around her waist, or making her wear her coat the rest of the night. Wendy, Tina, Rita, and Jennifer all took Mimi to a wedding up north one year and it was at a very nice place. They had to walk down the stairs into a big banquet room, and as they were walking down the stairs, Mimi's skirt fell completely off and to the floor! Mimi just laughed with everyone else. That's one thing I loved about her. She was always ready for a good time and knew how to laugh at herself.
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| Joel, Lani, Mimi, and Jack 2008 |
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| Joel and Mimi 2008 |
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| Jack, Lani, and Mimi 2008 |
After we moved to Chapin and Joel started farming, he started going to lunch each Tuesday with Mimi, Richard, and Jim. I would join them when I could. We would usually go to Placke's, and Mimi would always order catfish. I don't know why she would even bother ordering the catfish, because she would just pick at it and on a good day get half of the filet down. She really went to lunch for the dessert. If they had pie, she would always get a slice of pie with chocolate ice cream on top. It was always chocolate ice cream. Chocolate ice cream on apple pie, blueberry pie, cherry pie. I think if they would have let her, she would have put the chocolate ice cream on top of coconut creme pie! She would always get all her pie or brownie ice cream down.
No matter how the food tastest, if you would ask her how her food was, she would reply: "Mmmmm....It's food for the Gods". I don't know if Placke's food qualifies as food for the Gods, but Mimi always thought it did!
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| Mimi and Ainsley Feb. 2011 |
Mimi enjoyed playing bridge, reading, and watching her soap opera. She was the only person that would call Joel "Joey", and Joel enjoyed going in to visit with Mimi. We are going to miss her dearly, and I know Joel will miss stopping in to check on her.
Margaret Freeman Sept. 20, 1926-Dec. 27, 2011
