Grandma's Passing

As Mom said, Grandma was tough even when she didn't want to be.

This afternoon she passed away peacefully at her nursing home, within days after the medical staff advised that she was ready to transition to hospice care. Mom was there to visit her in the morning, the same as she had most mornings so dutifully in these past years. Whether or not Grandma was aware of her presence is hard to say.

The world had become infinitely small, even for a woman closer to five feet tall than six. In her eighties she fought off cancer, or maybe more aptly shrugged it off. She moved to the nursing home not long after sledding headlong down the stairs of her home, suffering only bruises. Glaucoma gradually sunset all but the brightest rooms into a fog of darkness and vague shapes, and her hearing grew more artificial.

Her body tried to imprison her but her soul was too radiant. Quick to join the "laughing club" at the nursing home, faithful to church in her finest. Hers was a determined, smiling, and musical spirit. She always carried her harmonica, eager to cheer an audience at every request (and they requested often). You'd visit her, with 90 year old lungs at half capacity, physically isolated from most of the world around her, and feel awkward only because she was still the better conversationalist. That's how she was all my life - a woman who was warm, comfortable, and loving yet made of steel in all the right ways.

To say that she anchored a generation yet understates her life. She enriched the days and lives entrusted to her. She deserves eternal happiness.

May God bless you, Grandma Lue!