Remembering Someone Special
Grandma and grandpa taking the city by storm in the 1940s.
On 22/2/2022, one of my favorite people in the whole world, who you may have heard me referring to as Awesome Grandma, crossed the rainbow bridge.
In the wake of her passing, I was heartbroken.
And overwhelmed with gratitude for all the decades of love and enough beautiful moments to last me a lifetime.
The captivating stories and political debates. The myriad of dry or plain jokes (so many giggles and belly laughs!). Our poetry soirees (to be fair, it was mostly her reciting her own writing as well as many other authors, by heart). The countless times she’s explained historical bits I had no clue about, like the colonization of St. Helena Island, the intricate ties between European royal families, or the making of the Babylonian Empire.
Her gentle, calming caress on my back, often the only thing that would put me to sleep.
Her roast bell pepper salads, smoked plum stews, comfort soups, and stuffed cabbage rolls.
She thought the biggest shame in the world is running out of food when you’re hosting (so now you know why I always have way too much food when I’m hosting people, and occasionally force-feed them).
She’s lived 94 and a half full years. 67 of them in an extraordinary marriage that is a big part of my emotional fort.
Skyping with me on their 65th wedding anniversary.
She grew up in the Kingdom of Romania, pre-war, a time of unprecedented growth and development. She was a teenager during WWII and the atrocities inflicted by the Soviets (the sort of trauma that doesn’t easily go away). She then saw everyone’s properties confiscated by the communists and was forced to labor on communal farms in awful conditions. She lived through four and a half decades of the Cold War. The 1989 revolution. A chaotic transition back to democracy and free markets in the 1990s. And then saw the country join the EU, NATO, etc.
4 lives in 1, at the very least.
It breaks my heart to think of her dreams - to have a peaceful youth, to travel and see the world, dreams that never came true. It is ironic that on the exact day she is departing, Russia is out and about, terrorizing one of its neighbors once more.
Regardless, she kept a light heart through it all and never took herself too seriously. She wondered why you would worry too much when you can just sit and eat ice cream. She had a kind word for everyone and she was a mom and a grandma to many beyond her immediate family.
When she turned 90, I gave her a call as I often used to. She was gardening and she said she was taking advantage of the “last days of her youth”. And that she'd “heard from the ‘elderly’ that the first 100 years are tougher, but then it gets easier”. Her signature humor.
I hope it just got easier, Buni.
I love you so much and I will miss you immensely.
You are always in my heart.
