Happy Birthday to One of My Personal Heroes

Today, is my Grandma, Sally's birthday.  Grams is one of the most amazing, brave, strong, hilarious, spunky, loving, and beautiful women I know. To have been given the blessing to be a witness to her life, to watch her live through some of the most painful, difficult, scariest moments a person can survive, and come out the other side stronger... I will be forever grateful for.

I was able to watch her as she grieved, watch her as she battled cancer, watch her as she lost family, friends.  But, she hasn't let it change her, at least not for the worse.  It almost seems to have been giving her fuel to grow.  They say we can either grow from or be destroyed by great pain.  She has shown me how glorious coming to the other side can be.  It has been inspirational, to say the least.  It has given me the guts to face some things I may not have before.  Watching her walk before me has taught me that I too can be put next to just about anything, and conquer it... not let it conquer me.

Grams and I have been able to commiserate about our arthritis.  She is someone I KNOW for a fact, understands on some level what I experience on a daily basis.  She has shown me that I can live through it... just as she has.  She has lived through so much more. 

Grams is a women not like many other of her generation.  She is tough as nails, but soft and sweet.  She is a master fisherman, a woman not afraid to get her hands dirty.  She taught me that a woman can skin a fish and still wear lipstick. She showed me how to knit, crochet, nurtured my creativity, and blessed me with the gift of crafts.

My grandmother.... well frankly she kicks ass.  And I don't think she'd mind that I said so.  So, today, on your birthday, Grams, I want you to know how much you mean to me.  How grateful I am that you are in my life.  How much I admire you, and how much I have learned from you.  Thank you for all that you are, all that you were, and all that you will be.  I love you!!