Remembering Grandma

I meant to post a tribute to my Grandma a few weeks ago, although this would also be appropriate for Mother's Day! April 11, 2009 was 5 years since Grandma passed away on an Easter Sunday. I still miss her so much. She was such a warmhearted, generous, enthusiastic, loving woman who was so full of life and so happily involved in her family members' lives right up until the very end. She died just a couple weeks before my cousin's wedding, but I'm sure she was there in spirit. The above photo is her at my graduation from Ohio Wesleyan in May 2001. She and I shared a love of nature, the outdoors, and traveling, and I'm now getting more into her other two favorite hobbies of gardening and cooking. When I was in college and grad school she would send me letters carefully typed out using her trusty typewriter. They would often end with "work work work, study study study!" I could tell she was proud of the hard work I did, and I dedicated my dissertation to her memory. It was partly because of her generosity that I was able to go to the Galapagos in college; go to Iceland, Argentina, Chile, and Ireland in early grad school; and buy a house last year. Some of my happiest memories are family dinners and picnics at Grandma's house and trips with Grandma to Sanibel Island. When she died, we all ended up with so many things from her and her house that are constant reminders of those happy times. The cedar chest in my living room, the bottle of marbles in my kitchen, the quilt in my bedroom...all of this makes me think of you, Grandma, and how much I miss you! Hopefully some day I'll be as wonderful a grandma as she was.