A Love Note to my Gramma (or Why I Posted a Picture with my Ex)
My Gramma died from Alzhaimer’s on Saturday, 23 July 2022. I grieved. I talked with my cousin for several hours.
Losing a dear relative to that evil Alzheimer’s is rough, but I actually grieved deeply and cried more than six years ago, the last time I saw her.
We were eating at a restaurant called “Bab’s Delta Diner” in Suisun, CA. She was living in a retirement home in Fairfield, CA. She could walk and talk and hold a converstion. She could hug me and peck me with a grandmotherly kiss.
I actually was there to see my other Gramma, who had fallen and broken her neck. Thankfully, she made a full recovery and still walks and all. She’s getting very forgetful now, but she’s 95.
My recently departed Gramma was 91. She was showing the signs of Alzheimer’s on 2010, around the time her husband, soulmate, and my Grampa died from cancer. But she hung on and kept going. She was a real machine.
I posted a fair number of pictures with Gramma in them. I remember her being a strong woman. She almost bit it in 1984 when she somehow caught Legionnaire’s Disease. As her body healed it, she developed Guillian-Barre Syndrome. GBS is an autoimmune syndrome that can affect anyone. It’s now often said that FDR had GBS vice polio because paralysis from GBS is reversible while polio paralysis usually isn’t.
Gramma was a great lady. She married a Sailor in 1952. He was an Aviation Storekeeper 3rd Class. She was a blossoming young woman. She had her first child, my Uncle, in 1953. Grampa left the Navy in 1956. He didn’t like civilian life so he joined the Air Force in 1958, a couple years after my Dad was born. He spent the next 14 years flying as a Loadmaster and doing great things over Vietnam like flying Skyhook missions rescuing downed fighter pilots.
Throughout all of this, Gramma was the steadfast military wife. She tied the family together like Jeff Lebowski’s rug tied the room together, man.
I grew up long after my Grandparents’ military life. But I was influenced by Gramma and Grampa. They taught me a lot. A lot of what Gramma told me and my first wife (I was a newly-commissioned Ensign then, USNA ’01) about the challenges of being a military wife. My First Wife got it and was onboard for 16 years. We brought a wonderful woman into the world. But my first marriage eventually became a casualty of military life. All water under the bridge.
Back to my Gramma, my Mom told me the marriage was all about to end until I was born. I was their first grandchild. My awesome cousin came a few months later. They saved their marriage, and it was AWESOME! I’m eternally grateful to know both sets of grandparents as stalwart life partners and soul-mates. I actively emulate this every day, even after going through divorce and marrying again. The Greatest Generation taught me a hell of a lot.
I’ll say I’m blessed. I grew up with a tight family and with all four grandparent alive for most of it (lost paternal Grampa when I was 31, paternal Gramma at 43, both maternal granparents still alive and well).
Anyhow, I mourn this death. In closing, I leave a picture of when they were on top of the world, Grampa as an Air Force Master Sergeant and Gramma as a healthy Military Wife.
Huzzah! Gramma’s sides are made of iron!
I love you. I miss you. We all who are left on the Blue Marble look forward to joining you in the Kingdom of Heaven. Amen, my Gramma. Until we meet again, God Bless, Godspeed, open waters, and clear air. I will wait as long as it takes for me to fulfill what God’s assigned purpose is (unlike military orders, God doesn’t exactly tell you what you’re supposed to do by message text formatted messages, except the Bible). Love you. Thank you for everything.
