"Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
This woman.
She was born at the start of the Great Depression.
She was a young woman as the events of World War 2 unfolded: The Holocaust, Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima.
She left a somewhat unhappy home as a teenager and began working as a nurse.
She married and raised 4 kids in the 50s, 60s & 70s: as wars waged in Asia and a "live free" Woodstock revolution began to dominate the culture of America.
She read the stories in the newspaper during the Cold War, saw the footage of 911 and is currently isolated from her family at a local hospital on her 91st birthday because of Covid-19.
And while I’m struggling right now with everything going on…this woman…this woman who I admire so much for so many reasons,…when I called her today to wish her a happy birthday and lamented on how this isn’t the ideal birthday situation…do you know what she said to me?
She said that this birthday is going down as a good birthday…
Because her infection is getting better.
Because she doesn’t have to fix her own meals.
Because her hospital has gluten-free options.
Because her daughters sent her plants.
Because she got over 60 cards in the mail.
Because people she taught in Sunday School 40 years ago took the time to tell her about how she touched their lives.
Because she got to see my brother’s wedding pictures today after not being able to attend the wedding.
Because she got to talk to me on the phone….
She told me that she thinks that I’m like her and that makes her happy.
And that brought me to tears as I told her that, while I don’t feel like I live up to all her positive qualities, she is one of the people I wish to be most like.
And in her typical style, she responded by saying that those words were just “another flower in her birthday cap!”
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I love you, Grandma!
Thank you for your positivity, encouragement & unconditional love.
