Sometimes I write very personal posts here. I know this is an “education blog,” but if you understand me and you know my passion, you will understand that education is completely personal to me. It’s about who I am, where I’ve been, and where I want to go. It’s also about the people who’ve helped me become who I am. The support network that I value beyond words.
I truly believe we are a patchwork quilt, woven experiences and threads of knowledge that weave together to make us the person that we are. Our core, our heart, a mixture of where we came from, where we wish to go, and what we believe in. Those beliefs? They are born of experiences, interactions, and love. A huge part of my quilt were my grandparents, and I lost my last living grandparent this week, my grandma. I was lucky to have them in my life for all of the years that I did. I know that.
Growing up, my grandma framed and hung my artwork, made her signature pineapple upside down cake, and went with us to Disney World when I was ten. She was there at my high school graduation, my college graduation, and our wedding. She was there the night our daughter was born, and I was lucky to watch Alex get to know her, too. For years on her birthday, I would call from my classroom and have my students sing happy birthday to her over the speaker phone. I used to love to shop at KMart with her as a kid and I’ll never see a crochet needle and not think of her. She always had Wrigley’s gum in the bottom of her purse, and she kept my childhood artwork in a frame in her home, even when I was in my thirties. I got a little ceramic Boston Terrier that I didn’t know she had until years later, after we got our little dog Beans, and realized that they are an exact replica of each other. I have it on a little shelf in my office and now it means even more to me, because it’s a reminder of memories, good to keep.
Saying goodbye is never easy. But when I think of all that I have, woven into my quilt and to keep in my heart, I feel grateful. 