I just found out that my grandmother, who had been fighting cancer for the past year and a half, has died. What follows will be a somewhat schmaltzy and personal tribute to this amazing woman.
This was a woman who, despite her age and the generation in which she grew up, was amazingly progressive and with it. The world is a lesser place for her passing.
This was a woman who, deciding that a young gentleman must broaden himself through travel, decided in a pretty proprietary way to send me to Europe while I was in college. She sent me tickets spanning 6 weeks and a Eurail pass, and told me when she would be meeting me so that we could backpack through the country, staying in youth hostels.
This was a woman who, when I would visit her as a young child growing up, would have two lists that she would magnet to the refrigerator. One of chores that I would do (or else!) and another of things that I would do for fun (or else!).
This was a woman that took me to my first war protest, and who (rather that stultifying as so many older folks will do) embraced change in the world as it suited her.
She would send (via email) stories of how she would follow the Ice Man as a child, to get ice chips to suck on as he delivered the ice to the people in her neighborhood.
This is a woman who insisted that we see Stonehenge together, and sent me postcards from Easter Island while she was on an archeological dig.
I can only hope that I am able to embrace and seize life with half of the gusto that she did.
There is a huge hole in my life where she once was. I will miss her horribly.
Your grandmother sounds like a really wonderful person. My grandma died about six years ago and it is still hard to come to grips with. The memories mean they never completely leave you, though. Hang in there.
YOur grandmother sounds like one of the special ones. Sometimes I wonder if the pain of losing such a person is worth the joy we had with them, and I tend to think it is. Don’t forget, you will see her again someday, so make her proud.
She sounds a bit like my grandma. I’m hoping to be as cool as her someday. I’ll be pretty broken up when she leaves us. (I should say “if she leaves us,” since she continually refuses to die despite the dire diagnoses the doctors give her.)
I’m sure she would be happy to know she left something behind by inspiring you. That was probably a large part of her motivation for doing those things in the first place.
