This is my commentary on my selected image for this week’s No Theme Thursday Challenge.
I selected this image:
I made this image with my grandmother in mind. The cardinal was always her favorite bird. I hope she would like it.
My grandmother was there for me and my mother almost literally from day one. After I was born, I was very sick and needed surgery. It was questionable whether I would make it or not. My grandparents, who lived several states away, flew down to be with us immediately. This was long before the days of FMLA and jumping on your phone to book a flight in seconds. It was a bit more of an undertaking.
When we moved back to the area, my grandparents took us in for a spell while we got situated. I was very young, but I remember those being very, very fun times.
Years later, history would repeat itself when mom and I ended up living with her after my parents split up. Eventually, my mom got remarried and it was just me and my grandmother for a few years more.
My grandmother was one of the hardest working people I knew. She worked at the same job for as long as I can remember until she retired. She got up every day at 4 in the morning and took a cab, because she never drove.
She made the best fried chicken, the best potato salad and the best baked beans.
She was firm, but fair. She was tough as nails, but had a very loving heart. When I had a pet rabbit, I swear she loved him more than I did. She claimed she hated cats, but I think that was just a front. She loved her first great-granddaughter dearly. I remember the first time we brought my daughter to meet her. The smile on her face could light up a room. She was also the only one who stuck up for me and my mother when everyone else thought the sun shone up my father’s ass. She was also right there to gloat a bit with me when he showed everyone his true colors.
Thinking about it, her only real flaw was that she was a Miami Dolphins fan. But I guess no one’s perfect.
We didn’t talk much the last couple years of her life. I was going through multiple issues and wasn’t talking to a lot of my family for a spell. No feuds or anything like that. I was just way too wrapped up in way too many things.
When her health took a turn for the worse, she ended up in the hospital. I had gone to see her multiple times to check on her. To try and get whatever time left with her that I could.
I still remember the day my mom called me and said if I wanted to say goodbye I had to get to the hospital now.
I remember the room, I remember where my aunt and mom were standing, I remember the nurse saying it wouldn’t be much longer and excusing herself from the room.
I remember we all said our goodbyes, and I remember holding her, crying my eyes out and saying I loved her very much. And I remember when the monitor went flat and she was gone.
I remember it all and it hurts just as much now typing this as it did that day.
As I sit here now, I can say I am very grateful to have had her in my life.
Gram, wherever you are, I hope I’ve made you proud. I love and miss you.
The Beginning At Last 
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