Our beautiful and beloved Jamie Grantham, only 62 years of age has sadly and unexpectedly passed away. With her loving grandchildren by her side, she was not alone. Not ever.

Jamie Grantham, was one of the strongest, most purest, loving, caring, courageous, ambitious, giving, determined, selfless women in the entire world. She dedicated her entire life to help others, always putting others before herself. She made an incredibly big impact on every single person’s life she ever entered. She will never be forgotten by anyone she has ever been around.

Jamie was an activist, a supporter for the land back movement, a women’s traditional dancer, helped with establishing and running cultural camps for Anishnaabe children and youth, and even was a former board member for years at the North Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre and even the Callander’s Lions Club. Her love and determination for wanting to help every single person, didn’t just stop there. She actively would volunteer to help with churches, taking care of the Seventh Day Adventist Church yards and gardens, contributing any money she had to any church she heard of, lived near or even ones not even in the country. Just to support outreaches, improvements needed inside their churches, or even just to pay towards tithes (Callander Bay Church). In her spare time, she created her own outreaches making backpacks for the homeless filled with all essential needs to stay clean, keep warm, stay hydrated and not hungry. She would spend her Christmas morning handing out these backpacks with her grandchildren all over Toronto. Jamie could never go to sleep knowing that someone needed help, needed money, was hungry and/or didn’t have a place to stay in any weather condition. At times, she would wake up her grandchildren and say we need to drop off blankets, food and water to a tent that had homeless individuals living inside of or even go pick up cats or dogs that were abandoned and reported on Facebook. Jamie would give her very last dollar to helping someone else than to get herself something she needed.

Writing this is Tashina Grantham, known as Jamie’s granddaughter. My grandmother was not only just that. She was my entire life. She had to play the role of my grandmother, grandfather, mother, AND father. Not only for me, but for my brothers Anthony and Justice Grantham as well. She was all we had. She raised my brothers since they were babies, and finally gained custody and gave me a loving home when I was 8 years old. Just as much as she was our entire world, we were just that and more, to her. She gave us everything we needed to become the strongest, loving and intelligent people we are today. She never ever gave up on us or the life she wanted us to have. She was even a foster care parent to many other children who were without parents and homes, raising children from all over.

My grandmother was my best friend. I’d always tell her that she needed to live forever, because I couldn’t live without her. We did every single thing together. She gave me my love for cooking, doing all sorts of cooking programs and even winning prizes for first place and making it on front pages. She gave me my love for gardening, we worked on our gardens every single year, and when it became harder, we got a greenhouse and gardened on the porch. Every single evening we spent getting tea and a coffee from Tim Hortons or a banana split from Dairy Queen, parked by the water and watching the sunset while we had long deep talks. We would sit there even until she fell asleep. She loved cooking and baking for us, and she loved when I would also cook for her. She loved road trips or even just driving to get lunch with me. She taught me the importance of helping others. We spend our holidays finding ways to donate, feed, or gift others. Holidays were not about buying each other expensive gifts, but for helping those who had nothing. Because she once had nothing too. We had a huge freezer in our basement full that was just in case she heard anyone did not have any food for dinner, christmas, thanksgiving, or just in general. As she dedicated her life for my brothers and I. I made it my life to give her the things she needed, the love she deserved, the spoiling she never had before, the adventures she always wanted, and the laughter and smiles she never would forget. She knew I would do anything for her, and that’s exactly what I did. She wanted to do anything to get better, so she could live as long as possible for her family. I fought so hard to keep her healthy, to find her doctors that would help her, to pay for medications she couldn’t afford, to bathe her when she couldn’t do it herself anymore, to braid and do her hair so she always felt beautiful. Every single time she cried when I would have to go back to work or school so I could give her what she deserved, it tore me apart. I know she wanted me by her side every single day, and I was for the most part. But I’m most thankful that I got to be by her side on her very last day.

This GoFundMe was written not completely just to remember Jamie’s beautiful soul, but to help us afford the cremation and funeral costs for her that she deserves. What is not known until after losing someone is all these extremely expensive charges and fees. It has been very hard coming up with the money, especially on our own. We are asking for any amount of donation to contribute into helping our family afford everything we need to pay for during this extremely difficult time. This time is already very devastating and hard for us, we just ask for a little help to make it a little bit easier.

And of course, we are not just asking for donations from others, but we will be donating some things from our home as my grandmother would want us to do. That being said, please look out for future posts of us donating things such as: desks, clothes, dog toys, small dog clothes, dressers and more. I want to thank every single one of you for taking the time to read this long message but also for your donation in helping my family and I. Jamie would be so happy to see the help from others helping her family during this time and I know Jamie and all of us from the Grantham family would love to hear any memories and stories anyone who has of her. Please reach out to any of us and share those special moments you had with her, with us. We’re all dealing with this together, and we will all love and remember her forever.

Thank you all again / Chii-miigwech.

It is never goodbye, it’s see you later. (baamaapii)