Contemplations

This evening I spent a lot of time contemplating the blessings of family members, living and deceased.

Today would have been my Grandpa Glen's 77th birthday and last month was the 7th anniversary of his passing.

While this sounds like a morbid beginning there are so many hidden blessings in life's experiences. For example, only days before passing away my Grandpa got to hold his last grandbaby who is my littest sister Morgan. She just celebrated her 7th birthday. What a gift life is. Our family was given life and had life taken with barely time for a breath between them. But I think there was more than one gift of life with Morgan's birth...as a 15 year old responsible for more than most of my friends have ever had to be in charge of, I watched my mom gain life again through her new baby and for the love of Morgan mom made it through the death of her dad after a long battle with lung cancer.

And I will always eat butterscotch and remember Grandpa and his steel toed boots, snores you could hear from a block away and obsession with ketchup.

Then, just a few years later my Great Grandpa Lloyd passed away. A man who had prayed for me every day of my life until the day he died. Despite struggling with memory and awareness just prior to his passing I was in town from school and stopped by his room in the home he was living to see him. I walked in and he knew just who I was and told me how much he loves me and verified that I knew he was praying for me. What a gift. I am so glad I stopped by that day because shortly after he was gone.

But I had a final, beautiful memory to cherish of the man who could never play Balderdash because he laughed so hard at his own definitions he would give himself away.

Then there's Nanny...and I don't even really know where to start. A woman who poured her heart and soul into my life and my siblings and my cousins and was taken away so suddenly. It's been a number of years now and I still have a hard time processing that she is gone. Life without Nanny has a big hole in it that you can feel deep down.

And yet even with so much love that has been removed from my life I am still left with the most wonderful, wonderful family members. In fact my favorite part of Apple's new OS for the iPhone is that I am able to text my parents! My mom is a pillar of strength and encouragement, my dad is my hero, and my Grandmother is my role model and inspiration for who I am pursuing to be today.

I don't really think that there are words that can ever fully describe a person. How do you put a human being into words? How do you show the way someone has been influenced by those around them? All we can do is take the time to reflect on the people who have played big roles in our lives and, if you can, let them know.