We celebrated my Grandma Adele today.  A small, beautiful celebration of her life.  A fantastic, wonderful life filled with great friendships, family, and experiences. 

My memories of my grandma start when she was in her mid-50’s; I knew my grandma in five decades of her life…her 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s.  First of all, just wow.  Second of all, I knew her 45% of her life; that too is crazy considering she lived 95 years. At the same time, there were 52 years of Adele before my time.  She was always my grandma; grandmas are supposed to be loving and caring; grandmas aren’t necessarily supposed to be young and beautiful.  I wasn’t privileged to know my grandma during her younger years; looking at pictures in her youth and early motherhood give just a glimpse into how stunning and glamourous she was. 

At her celebration of life, I shared what I had written Grandma a few months before she passed.  Several pages of fantastic memories that I easily thought of in less than 30 minutes.  Even now as I write this, I realize I forgot to include SO many other memories that I have with her and Papa.  There is no shortage.  I am truly blessed to have known my grandma and been so close with her for 43 years. She hadn’t remembered Sol for quite some time; not only am I sure she remembers him now, but he was waiting for her with open arms (okay, an arm and a half) and I can vividly see them greeting each other with minimal words, just great big smiles and a soft “hi honey”.