Today I would write about my next great adventure as my blog promises, but I cannot. Today is the first day I've really felt like I could talk about this with any kind of composure, with the kind of eloquence she truly deserves (at least I hope to).
Friday, March 11th 2011, my maternal grandmother passed away. She lost a truly courageous, year-long battle with cancer. She was mother to a family of 8 children, and a grandmother/great-grandmother to over 30. She never complained, never faltered, and never wavered in her magnanimous devotion to her family, her friends, and her community. She was a rock, a stable, dependable force of patience and love, who through some miracle could morph into a powerful organizer, community planner, and fundraiser, then turn into a gentle grandmother who could hug each of her many progeny with as much love and acceptance as her ever-expanding heart possessed.
The world seems to me, a less kind place without her. My father put it best when he said it seemed like he was forgetting something when he left the the house each morning. I feel an emptiness from her death that I've never experienced before. Our family, certainly, will never be the same. Though her legacy lives in each life she touched, and most assuredly in her children who each got some of the best of her.
I like to think of her not so much as gone, but resting from a life truly lived in service to those around her. For if any soul deserves it, she most certainly does.
