A Beautiful Life Lost

I lost one of the most incredible women I've ever met in my entire life. I lost my grandma tonight. She was such a blessing to me.

When I was a junior and senior in high school, I began going to the grocery store every Sunday to buy her groceries and I was then blessed to get to spend time talking with her after. We'd talk about an hour and she'd tell me the best stories. She told me how she met my grandpa. She'd tell me about my dad when he was little. She'd tell me about how when I was still really little, my dad was always holding me and never seemed to put me down. She told me stories that made me really happy.

When I told her I wanted to be a theology major, she was one of my biggest supporters. She was so happy that I wanted to do youth ministry and share the love of God with others. She said I would be perfect to do that. When she had a stroke 2 years ago, I knew she'd never be the same. When I was still at Xavier, I'd go and visit her. Even though her short term memory was pretty much shot, she'd still tell me stories from when my dad, aunts, and uncles were younger. It made me so happy to see how much joy those stories brought to her.

I visited her twice after returning from my semester abroad in Austria before I had to come back to Steubenville for summer classes. I told her some of my stories from my 4 months in Europe and I told her that because of my time in Romania, I wanted to go back to Romania and do mission work. I've never seen her look happier. She probably didn't remember me telling her that, but to know that just for a moment she supported me in that, made me even more excited about it.

I will miss her greatly. She's the woman I got my name, my attitude, and my fighting spirit from.

Thanks, Grandma, for being such a beautiful example in my life. I love you and will always miss you.