October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, is coming to an end. As it does, I find myself thinking about my grandma. I remember the scratchy feel of her living room rug on my face when I would play of the floor. I remember her dining room buffet that had toys in one end. I remember her kitchen that would be considered very "retro" now. I remember being scared of the laundry shoot in the upstairs bathroom that would deliver dirty clothes all the way to the basement three floors below. I remember the white hen candy dish with the pink, powdering candies inside. I remember her three-wheeled bicycle. I remember that she was a happy, generous, lovely lady. And she loved to laugh. Daddy tells a story of trying to teach her to drive. I believe they were in a VW Bug. I know it was a straight drive. He tells of them jerking and jolting across a field, stalling and restarting, then jerking and jolting some more. I can picture the scene in my mind...her releasing the clutch too quickly and not giving it quite enough gas. Then the laughter! Full and deep and honest, complete with tears streaming down her face! Fast forward to one her visits from Ohio to my family's home in North Carolina. Now, my grandma was not a small woman. She was very fluffy and huggable! One of my most vivid memories is of her sitting with me at my little table in one of my little matching chairs in the corner of our kitchen sharing breakfast with me. I wish I could have kept her around longer. I wish my girls could have known her. Had cancer attacked her later in life, she may have had more of a chance to fight it. She was diagnosed at a time when doctors really did not know much about treatments. Chemo was mixed into orange juice. Radiation was used to the point that it burnt her up from the inside. We have come such a long way! Today, she may have been a survivor. But, like all loved ones we lose too early, she survives in my heart! Thank you, God, for sweet memories of special people!
