My Grandmother

These are my Grandparents, Edward and Dolores. While my single mother worked 7 days a week, seemingly around the clock, to provide our two person family with life's necessities, my Grandmother cared for me. I remember watching Bill Kennedy At the Movies with her and Sir Graves Ghastly on a small black and white television (though she did her laundry and cleaning while Sir Graves graced the screen). I remember how much she loved General Hospital (though I never really caught on to that whole soap thing) and late night snacks of frozen Snickers bars and Vernors floats. MMMM....and Lorna Doone cookies - oh, how I loved their crispy, buttery goodness. I also remember our walks together. Sometimes just around the block, but often to the park, and generally to the cadence, "left, left, I left my wife and 49 kids" (the only words I can recall). I remember her stories of the Great Depression; boiling chicken bones for broth, turning in found old rubber tires for money to buy food, and drawing lines on the back of her legs because she couldn't afford seamed stockings. But most of all, I remember her undying love and her unselfish way of putting everyone else's needs above her own.

She's the one thing in my life that has remained constant. She went to church every Sunday, sent birthday cards every year then called to sing to you on the phone, and spent her days always giving of herself to those in need. She asks for so very little and deserves far more than she's received. Even now, in a battle for her own life against an extremely rare form of cancer she, somehow at peace, prays not for herself but for her family instead. I will pray - enough for both of us. And I ask that anyone reading this to please, please, please take a moment and send up a prayer for my Grandmother that, whatever be God's will, she receive all of the rewards in heaven she so rightfully earned here on earth. For if I have inherited just one tenth of this woman's love, devotion, strength, patience, sheer will, and humanity I would have received a gift far greater than anything I could ever wish for.

I love you, Grandma...