Saying Goodbye

Today I will attend the memorial for my grandmother, everyone will have their memories and their toughts we will talk and celebrate the life she lived, at the same time saddness that we are moving on without her beside us will be ever present. Each one of the members of my family carries faith in their own way.

So today while I say goodbye to an amazing woman, I will also celebrate that I had the privledge of having my grandmother in my life for 37 years. I was blessed with many moments and many lessons, some that I will share with my own daughter as she grows up.

So today here are a few memories and moments I will be thinking about as we release her doves today:

• Woman can live independantly
• Woman can be smart and bold and funny , but they should also be kind and thoughtful
• You do what it takes to get what you need done, and you take care of the ones who need you
• Toast is a great evening snack, especially with tea
• You should wash your face everyday and put on lotion ( does not have to be expensive - she always looked years younger then everyone else - I have been doing this since I was 12 and I too am often today I look younger then I am)
• Travel when and if you can - she loved that I had gone to Europe
• If you choose friends well they can last a lifetime
• Simply love the best way that you can
• Forgive , and move on
• The only fashion advice I never took was that calves look great in heels! Today I will wear RED high heels just for her! she always thought my shoes were ugly.

There will be moments the rest of my life that I will think of her. Every Spring and Fall she would call and let me know it was time to change the clock. This continued up until I was about 35 years old. She then figured I was ready to finally remember myself. I forgot the first spring and the first fall. Many of the clocks I have now are automatically done by some magically controlled device inside the cable box or cell phone. But the ones on the wall, well they always needed the prompt from my grandmother to be changed.

Her love of CNN was a constant news source for me, this is how I learned of many emerging news stories, listeria outbreaks because of meat, tylenol cold recalls, children cough medicine debats and many more. She remembered every wellness check my daughter was going to , she knew every shot she was going to be getting or at least knew when the appointment was. I couldn't remember to buy milk and she more then 50 years my senior knew to remind me of the little details or to check in and see how an appointment went.

My grandmother lived through the depression, through war, saw some of the most amazing world accomplishements, watched the start and the end of the cold war (1945-1991), she celebrated the birth of her children, grandchildren and great grand children.

I don't know if I will live that long, but I know that I will take so much more into my life, and pass on so much of who she was to future genrations, because I was lucky to have been part of what she brought to the world.

Melanie