Life and death

I'm glad of any happy news these days. Reports about global recession, Madoff's ponzi scheme, boneheaded US auto execs, robberies, child disappearances, and so on have joined forces recently with late pregnancy slowness and a chest cold to put a serious damper on my usually cheery spirit.

But these minor troubles were put into proper perspective yesterday with the early morning phone call informing me of the passing of the last of my surviving grandparents. Just 36 hours after my brother, mom, and David and I visited her, my grandma Ginny succumbed to an aggressive cancer. She died at home in her bed at the age of 87.

Grandma was mostly prepared for death. She'd had her knee replaced earlier this year but recovery was slower than last time. She was mostly deaf in the end but her hearing aids befuddled her, leaving her in a bit of a cocoon. And she didn't seem to like that old friends were leaving her behind. With the passing of each friend or family member came the announcement that she could die any day too, no matter the evidence of her relative healthiness. Even just a few months ago few if any of us would have expected she'd be gone at year's end. However, such is the nature of life, that it comes and goes as it will, often without regard to logic and expectations.

I am glad to have spent so many years knowing her, and having had the chance for her to see me grow up, settled with a wonderful partner (whom she always described as a very good man), and well on my way to passing on family stories and genes to another generation. As her health rapidly declined she often expressed the wish to live long enough to see our baby born. I will always be sad that she did not make it to that day. But I know that with time this sadness will be overshadowed by the memories of having been loved and cared for. She will never have met the baby, but I have no doubt that he will feel her love, as well as that of our other grandmothers and grandfather who died before her, through the love that we ourselves have been given and continue to cherish. So rest in peace, grandma, and know that your "little girl" loves you.