Hail and my awesome grandma

On November 2, we had a big hail storm.  The hail was 1.5" in diameter, and it came down for several minutes.  There was so much of it that it covered the street and piled up in our yard.

I collected this bowl of hail, and it soon melted into a bowl of water with a little tree debris in it.  It reminded me of one of Grandma Opal's favorite stories she used to tell about me.  When I was about five years old, I went out after a storm to gather hail and took it to her house to show her, because I was sure she had never seen hail before.  She wasn't home, so I went inside (because that's how it worked...she lived next door and it was like our second home. We never knocked; the door was always unlocked; and we were always welcome) and left her a note.  I wrote something like "Here is some hail for you" and drew an arrow to the hail balls that I left on the paper. She said when she got home, she read my note and followed my arrow to a puddle, and it made her laugh.  She kept that water-stained note for decades and often brought it out to show people and tell the story.   I sure do miss her.  She was an excellent grandma and one of my best friends.