Happy Birthday Grams

Last year - and it's reeeeally hard for me to believe it's been an entire year, already - I almost went to pieces because I wanted so badly to find a particular photo of my Grams and I from several years back. I couldn't find it no matter where I looked, and I feared that it had been thrown out, somehow. I was scared that it was a mere memory, confined to only my own mind, now. That's really not so bad, not such a big deal. It just meant so much to me, this one little picture.

As luck would have it, despite the chaos of a cross-state move since last year, it turned up just last week in a box I wasn't even aware had photos in it. It turned up alongside a couple of others of my Grams and I, too, that mean a lot to me as well. So, in honor of her 87th birthday today, I wanted to share them.

// Easter morning, 2002, in our silk pjs. //

// October 2002, just before going to the my sophomore homecoming dance with Danny. //

...And this. This is the photo I had wanted so badly to find last year and share. It just instantly floods me with memories of how my grandmother used to be. How lively, how smart, how funny... I miss it.

Celebrating her birthday today, and seeing her as she is now - just a few years later - is a reminder to me of what I should not take for granted. It's a reminder of how fast things change.

I love you Grams. Happy birthday.