For Grammy

It takes a special kind of strength and kindness to be a Grandmother, the kind of Grammy that has that sense of warmth all around her being. A glow of kindness that radiates inside and around everything she does. And that touches all those beings that are lucky enough to come into contact with her.  Someone who is so patient, understanding and kind, that she won’t bat an eyelash at a 17 year old bearded crazy person who put on a dress and full make up to try to cheer her granddaughter up, she’ll just look up, roll her eyes and laugh.

A person so generous and kind and understanding, when his heart is completely shattered to pieces, he’s completely down on his luck and has nowhere else to turn, and is clearly on drugs, doing pushups in her living room at 4 in the morning, still has the generosity to offer him a place to sleep on her couch. She accepts him for all his strangeness and bravado. Laughs at every extremely inappropriate joke that would make most Gram’s hit him over the head with her cane. Simply put she is the very definition of what a human being should be, someone who loves unconditionally, who accepts all with open arms and a warm smile on her face.  She lets you become a part of her family, invites you for holidays when your family is away. Always with that glowing warm smile and her wonderful laugh and manner, she’s the type of person that will renew your faith in humanity when it is tested.

Grammy was all of that, and so much more. She was the sturdy backbone of her family who doted upon her Daughter, Granddaughters, and Great Grandchildren. She always had a warm hello, for whatever chucklehead decided to show up at her house that day. And believe me, I was and still am to some degree a giant chucklehead. We wandered in and out of her house at all hours of the night, and never once did she complain, or scream, or, thank god, call the cops. She always accepted us for who we were and was a Grandmother to all of the weirdo’s that decided to hitch themselves to her granddaughters, and I was SO LUCKY to be one of those wierdo’s.

 And for her patience, grace, and acceptance, I will forever be so so greatful, because what she didn’t know, that it was partly due to that acceptance that I was really able to always be comfortable just being me. And for that there is nothing I can do to repay her but to just say “Thank you”. Thank you so much for letting me be a part of your family, when I certainly didn’t have any right to be. Thank you for letting my friends and I be invaders in your home, and for accepting every single one of us for who we were. And helping us learn from you what it means to be a Grandparent, and a true human being. I love you. And whatever corner of the universe you’ve gone to is now the grander because you are there, just as we were when you were here.

“So if you love someone, you should let them know, the light that you left me will everglow”.