I'll miss you

I try to keep this blog relatively light and humorous, and if you know anything about me I wear my emotions on my sleeve. So I need to get this off my chest... On Wednesday I lost my great grandmother. Luckily it wasn't after a long battle w/ anything it was simply her body was old and tired. "I think her part were worn out" as my 6 year old son said. She was a strong woman who lived through the depression and more personal loss than any one person should have to live through. Looking back I realize it made her a stronger but lonely person and sometimes bitter person. Here is a brief history of her, and trust me with 98 years of life this may rival cliff notes; Marguerite was one of two twins born on May 8th 1908, her twin sister never made it past a few weeks of life. I don't know allot of her time as a youth because she never spoke of it much. I do know she lived through the depression but always made it sound like it wasn't that hard on her. But I know it affected her more than she led on. It was her mannerisms w/ money and food. She never spent frivolous or ate to the point of excess (how she ended up w/ a competitive eater I'll never know). It was like she was always saving things for another day. She was married and gave birth to her son Artie (my grandfather). She was quickly divorced after because as she put it "he was a momma's boy, so I sent him home to his momma". Artie was raised by my great great grand mother "little grand mom" who for the record lived to 104, not sure exactly why he lived w/ her but it was a conversation I dare to broach more than once and w/kid gloves on. But in typical Marge fashion I was told it was none of my business and move on. Artie in turn married Margie (my grandmother), but as fate would have it Artie was killed in a motor cycle accident when Margie was 7 months pregnant. Margie moved to Phoenix for health reason raised my mother alone, until she died when my mom was 16. My mom found her dead in bed one day. DJ (my mother) moved back to Jersey to finish H.S. with Marguerite and little gram. But again fate and its cruel ways struck for the second time, taking my mother from us when I was 12. This seemed to hit her pretty hard, but I wasn't around to see how any of the others affected her. My brother and I were adopted by close family friends but she was always a part of my life. She moved to Louisiana with her niece and sister where they lived for 5 years. When they returned to Jersey where her sister died shortly after and my cousin didn't want to take care of her anymore. So my wife and I took her in...Where she lived w/ us for almost 3 years. She went to the "Home" after a series of falls put her in a wheel chair. I felt incredibly lucky to have her in my life so long and even more fortunate to have my children (her great great Grandchildren) spend so much time with her. Though I think it was great for them to see a perspective of life they would never get from me or Pepe, it was even better for her. It seemed to give her a sense of purpose, almost something new to live for. And that purpose got her into 98 year of life.

So now I have to say goodbye to a woman who played many important roles in my life. Like mother figure when mine couldn't be around, a friend when I just needed to someone to talk to, family historian and the voice of reason when I was being a knucklehead. Some how her patented "YOU BIG DUMB OX" reeled me back in or just made me laugh and made me think...

Gram I love you and you will be missed...