A Grandmother's Love

Grandmother hugs and Grandmother kisses,

Hot oven cookies and holiday wishes,
Attics with treasures of children grown old,
Stories of magic and princes so bold,
Oceans of patience and rainbows of love,
A bright ray of sunshine sent from above,
You stirred my childhood with rich, golden days,
Touching my life in so many ways.
When shadows are dark,
I reach through the night,
The love of a Grandmother shines like a light.
~Unknown

A year ago this morning I lost the one woman who meant the world to me, my Grammy. When most babies were bonding with their mother I was bonding with my Grammy. My mother was a very young girl when she had me, so growing up; my Grammy was my mother up until I was 4.

My Grammy taught me how to sew, knit, and crochet all by the time I was 5. I even remember having my own tin of various colored threads, needles, and swatches of fabric so I could make clothes for my little Dawn dolls. Dawn dolls...geez. How many of you out there remember those?!

My Grammy gave me a love for books. Every week she and I walked up town to the main library. I'd come back with stacks those little green Beatrix Potter books. Gawd, how I loved those books and how I always looked forward to going to the library.

My Grammy also gave me a love for the Greek. Every year she would take me to the annual Greek Festival, when it was still held in downtown Oakland at the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center. I loved all the different foods and breads. What I enjoyed even more was watching the dancing. I'd never seen anything like it.

There are so many things that remind me of my Grammy. Even though she is gone, I know she is still all around me in all the things that I see and do. I miss her like crazy but I know she is happier where she is now and I know... She is never far away...