I got the call this morning while I was on the bus headed to work. My grandmother died during the night. It wasn't much of a surprise - she was 95 years old, restricted in her own body by the passage of so many years and the onset of Parkinson's disease and, more recently, congestive heart failure - but it still stings inside me like very few events during my life have before. I'll always have the memory of the very last time I saw her though.. she had just been moved into the facility where my mother works (mom's a dietary manager), and when I came in the room her eyes and smile got as big as I'd ever seen them. I hadn't seen her that alive in years, and I'm glad I got the chance to see it one more time.
When I told my boss the news and how old she was, he mentioned how over the span of her life she had experienced so many significant events in the world. This got me thinking about some of those changes and advances that have been made.
When she was born, she didn't have the right to vote because of her gender. Before she died, she was able to watch another woman storm the halls of government, and see women fully in charge elsewhere in the world. She's watched as the world grew more tolerant of each other, and continued to fight over the same old divisions to this very day. She's seen the fall of old empires and the rise of new ones, though these new players didn't consider themselves empires. She's seen the invention of wonderfully technological things that we today couldn't manage without, but that she as a child didn't even dream about. She lived through some of the toughest times, and saw them get better again. And most importantly, the family that grew around her came into its own and she never for a moment enjoyed anything more than having us all together. Even as her siblings, friends, and my grandfather left this world long before her, she was always the foundation for us all even if she couldn't realize it anymore towards the end.
And now I think to myself.. am I going to have these same opportunities to be a foundation for a family of my own, in this country that has been passed down to my generation? And then I remember that we as a country have lived through dark times before. We've toughed it out, and things got better, but it took the strong will and determination and hope of folks like my grandmother to do it. I don't think I can live up to her example, but I can sure give it my best effort because I know she'll be looking down on me with those wide eyes and smile.