My Grandma...
"What a Beautiful Life we Could Have..." What a beautiful life we did have and it was all thanks to the most special woman in not only my life but that of my entire family's and every other person my Grandmother's path crossed.
For over 10 years, she was at all of my games,
sitting front row cheering us on, yelling at the refs, and bringing her speciality
foods to our team potlucks, holding it down as my support system, and my biggest fan. One game in particular we always laughed about, but in the moment it was scary and I felt guilty for a long time. It was raining, and we were extremely late for one of my games. When we arrived
I ran in to meet up with my team when I realized that through all of the
rushing I had forgotten my shoes. It was literally minutes before game time,
and she insisted to run back home and pick them up. On her way back, partly
because of the rain and partly because I'm sure she was rushing, but either way
she got into a car accident. She spun out on the freeway and damaged her car
but she wasn't hurt. The reality sunk in for me, and it took a long time for me
to get over the fact that she could have gotten hurt, and it
would have been all my fault. It just showed a small part of her selflessness
and her willingness to always be helping someone. She was known to all of
my teammates on every team I was ever on as "Grandma" and she
literally stole our hearts, bringing laughter and warmth to us all.
When I think back to some of my memories, there's so many. To list them all, the list would go on and on for forever. I remember spending time at the family restaurant
"Mom's" that she owned and was known to most of us as our second home.
I remember having to go there at the beginning of my Mom's work shift and
having Grandma take my brother and I home which usually resulted in a pit stop to a local
frozen yogurt spot before we reached home.
I remember Holidays and all of us piling into her
house on the mesa, and the value of family I pulled from watching her with the
members of my family and friends. I remember laughing so hard it making us all cry due to
her wittiness and her ability to make any situation something to laugh about. I
remember being able to go to her for any problem, concern, or just to talk. I
remember her hugs, kisses, and the immense amount of love she shared and gave
to anyone who walked into her home. I remember the way she would tease the boys
about their facial hair and how she would explain to them what my Nona would do/say if she could see them. How her hearing aides would ring and everyone could hear them ringing but her. I remember the looks we would get from waitresses when we would repeat to her what they were asking by yelling the words to her so she could hear us. I
remember the letters her and I would exchange when I moved away for college and
the way she was able to make me laugh and feel her love just through the words
on the paper. I remember her immense amount of strength and how she was able to pull through any injury or undesirable situation. I remember all of her stories, her love for my Grandpa, and her love for life in general. I mostly remember her ability to pull people close to her, I was close to her. She was my rock, our families rock. She was the reason for most of our travels, for most of our meet ups, and for most of the mutual stories between us. She loved each and every one of us full heartedly and created a special unique bond with each of us without effort, but by just being herself.
My life has been blessed. My Grandma showed me what it means
to be a selfless, strong, caring, and supportive person. She was wise, kind, loving,
had a heart bigger than anyone I know and was absolutely hilarious. She was
our families matriarch, the person I look up to, the person I will forever strive to
be, the person who will forever be my guardian angel.
I find myself now thinking about her and missing her...a lot. I find myself feeling guilty that I should have set more time aside finding ways to talk to her when I could no longer talk with her on the phone, and when letters became too difficult for her to keep up with. I wish I would have made a better effort to tell her in person how much she means to me, how much I love and look up to her and how much of an influence she's been to me in my life. I wish I could thank her for the love and support she gave me in sports, academics and in life in general. I can only pray that she already knew. I try to convince myself that she's in a better place and that it's ok because she is now without pain, but the bottom line is that I miss her. It saddens me that Elijah doesn't get any more time with her, and that she had to leave so early in his life. My goal is to keep her alive in our hearts and to always talk about her so that he always knows who his Nona is and the beautiful person she was.
Her strength, her courage and her wisdom are all traits I saw in her long ago and they hold true to me still today. She is an inspiration and I will always keep her close to me, in my heart and in my soul.
