Time to Say Goodbye

On Tuesday, July 17th, my family and I had to say good-bye to my dear grandmother. She passed away that morning at the age of 90. I am grateful to have had her in my life for as long as I did. I wanted to pay a little tribute to her here, as she was a very strong woman and came through a lot of hardships in her life. My gram never talked much about herself and her childhood, but my mom and my aunt helped me to learn a few things even I didn’t know.

My grandma endured the loss of her father when she was just a toddler. She left Russia (on a boat!) with her mom at the age of 6 (it was 1923), and landed in Halifax. The funny thing she always used to say was that they were supposed to be going to the U.S. – but they got on the wrong boat! We’re not sure if that was really true or not.

Her mother soon married a widowed business man with many young children. My gram struggled to fit in with the smart, blond, blue-eyed children who did not speak funny English (my gram had to learn English as her second language at a very young age). When in her teens, she met my grandpa and she was delighted to find someone to love and so they married in 1938. My gramps joined the Air Force in 1943 to do his duty, leaving my grandma to fend at home by herself, and pregnant with my mom.

As happened with many men returning from years away in service, there was a transition time for my gramps to get reacquainted with his family and assume his leadership role as head of the household. My grandma later gave birth to my aunt Linda.
When my grandma’s own mother (who was not well) became widowed for a second time, she came to live with my grandparents and the girls (my mom and aunt), adding to the work in the household. My grandma worked hard to provide things for her girls. She wanted them to have the right things, piano lessons, and nice clothes. She liked to bake, listen to classical music, play piano, play Maj Jong, and later play bridge. For years she worked at Eatons in the shoe department. I was too young to appreciate that at the time, but boy would I have reaped the rewards on that one if I was older! Many women did not work outside of the home in those days. But my grams wanted more for herself and worked hard to accomplish that.

When my grandfather lay in bed in the hospital with a serious illness, my grandma came everyday and stayed all day with him, taking the bus to get there. She never considered it a sacrifice. My grandpa was her life and she was proud to be his wife. She never really got over his death, and although she lived 13 years longer than he did, she was lonely and looked to my mom and my aunt, and us grandchildren for companionship.
My grandma lived with me for five years before I moved in with Rich. I am so grateful to have had her that close to me during that time, even though I may not have realized it then – I do now. My gram loved her family so much. I’ll miss her greatly, but I have tons of memories to look back on and I just hope she’s back with my grandpa now and they’re together again.