For A Hundred Years.

I remember when I was little I used to lay in my bed at night. I would be so afraid. I dont remember about what, but something about the night scared me. I would make sure my dad was locked into his room and i would wait until the silence was all that I heard. I would quickly slide out of my bed and open my door. I would look both ways, afraid my dad was not in his room like I thought. I would then hold my breath, and run as fast as my little legs could carry me down the hall. I would open the door to brightness, to warmth. My grandma or as I called her, non. I can picture her now, sitting on her chair, watching reruns of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire". I would sit on her floor and we would just talk for hours. She would always reassure me that there was nothing to be afraid of. She would walk me to my room and sit at the foot of my bed and rub my leg. I loved just knowing she was there. Sometimes she would even sing to me.

My grandma was an amazing person. She had the most amazing heart of anyone I have ever met in my life. She left her life completely for me and my brother. She stopped her world, to take care of me. From the time I was 3 years old we did everything together. Whether that means going to Welsh Farms in fall, buying me new school clothes for the school year or taking me to the pool in the summer, and never did she complain. She was a woman of strength. The kind of strength that I wish I could have. She had serious leg problems, shoulder problems and back problems. Pain was something that was constant in her life. Physically and mentally. Her daughter died, her husband died, all of her sisters died: and she was left. But she never let those obstacles in her life get in the way of her love. She demonstrated love in ways that I will never forget. Whether it was picking me up from school everyday of her life, sacrificing everything that she had or if it was never giving up. She taught me to never give up.

She died on September 16,2008. But she is always with me. Every time I go to a diner and someone starts mopping the floor, I can hear her yelling at the waiter telling them its rude and unsanitary, every time I drink Sprite, I can feel the hundreds of 12 packs of Sprite that I have carried in for her, and every time I see a rose, I see her beauty. I am so thankful that I got to have her as not only as my grandma, but as a mother. Without my grandma, I really believe that I would be some place so different today if it wasn't for her. I actually know that. Her life and her role in my life shows me that God's plan is so much bigger than we can imagine.

I wish anything right now that she could just be sitting at the bottom of my bed, reassuring me that everything will be okay. I think maybe she is.