n.
1. A woman who rules a family, clan, or tribe.
2. A woman who dominates a group or an activity.
3. A highly respected woman who is a mother.
Take any one of these definitions and apply it to my grandma. It fits. She rules our family, not with force but with love. She is the head of the family and has been for many years now. Her kitchen has always been the meeting place for her six children, thirteen grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.
Now, we find ourselves meeting in the hospital. And it seems sudden and surreal to some while others were trying to prepare themselves all along. But for everybody in the family it is a blow. Yet the funny thing is that holding Grandma's hand in her hospital room with the family gathered around her it is the exact same atmosphere as it always was in her kitchen. There is conversation and laughter and love. Much love. And she is soaking it all in as she waits to peacefully slip away.
So as I sit here and think about my Grandma nearing the end of her life I feel deeply sad at our family's loss but I also feel hope. She is leaving a legacy of love with us. And anyways, as she put it so bluntly yesterday, "I'm 82 years old - what more do you want from me?!?!?" The answer is nothing - we could not ask for anything more.
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