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gryphonrhi mentioned elseJournal, it's been a real rollercoaster of a week. As if life wasn't already "interesting" enough, we unexpectedly lost her grandmother today.I almost never use this icon. I honestly don't even remember what I had in mind when I made it, but it seems appropriate now. It seems to share some of the qualities that always come to mind when I think of her: graceful. Always poised, without ever seeming posed. Always with a smile, and eyes that saw more than most people realized.
She had a keen mind, and wasn't afraid to ignore convention in favor of what she felt was right. I remember when her church got a new minister, a woman whose first sermon was to introduce herself and inform the congregation of her interracial same-sex relationship. Rather than follow those who left that church, she decided to give the new minister a chance, and based her decision to stay on the quality of the sermons rather than the external characteristics of the minister's partner.
Nor was she ever one to suffer fools gladly -- more than one member of the family felt the sharpness of her tongue when they'd done something particularly unwise. Even then, they knew they'd earned her disappointment, but never doubted that they still had her love.
But I suspect that one of the things that will forever be associated with her, for me and the rest of her family (and yes, she made it very clear that I was family, too) were her picnics. She actually managed to find a way to deal with feeding a decent-sized family gathering that left no one with cause to complain that they didn't like what was being served. I knew her for 20 years, and to the best of my knowledge, any family gathering that included her meant that one meal would be one of her picnics. They became a family institution, and I hope they will continue.
She was one of those people that you couldn't help but like, and she had a heart that showered love on those around her. She was a fine lady, and it was my privilege to share this earth with her for as long as I did. Heaven knows she more than earned a rest, but she will be sorely missed.
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