My Great Grandmother

I was looking at a picture of my great grandmother a few minutes ago and randomly decided to write about her. Why not? This lady was nothing short of amazing. She was born on April 19, 1905 and passed away on January 2, 2009. That's right, she lived to almost 104 years old! Not too many people can say they have a family member that lived that long. Her ex husband, my great grandfather, lived to 96! She gave birth to 4 children. In addition to that, she raised 4 other children after a family member passed away. She took in those kids. She went to school until she was in 8th grade. Then she worked at her father's store. Despite dropping out of school, she was incredibly smart. I'll never forget a time I visited her. I think she was 97 at the time. She did word searches and other puzzles. We would always play Skip-Bo and she would beat us all. This particular time, my dad and I were looking at a word that was scrambled. We could not figure out the word. My great-grandmother said, "Give me that." Three seconds later she said, "Theory."  We were amazed at her sharp mind at such a fragile age. She was always knitting something for family members despite the arthritis in her hands. She used the smallest needles and thread and made beautiful decorations. We have many of her doilies all over the house. She was an extremely healthy lady until she died of pneumonia. She was hard of hearing and losing her memory, but what can you expect from a 103 year old? I loved visiting her and hearing all of the stories she would tell us (many of them repeated, but who cares?) I know how lucky I am to have had all four grandparents and a great grandmother living until I was 21 years old. I know that I'm lucky to still have 3 living grandparents at 25 years old. Cherish your family members and listen to the stories they tell you. It's so interesting to hear what it was like back when your elders were kids. Treasure these stories for as long as you live. Memories last forever.