Reflecting on my grandmother
Yesterday we celebrated a lovely funeral mass for my grandmother, who passed away at 103 years of age last week. I know many of you remember Margaret, as she was present for so many important moments of my life. And if you met her, she surely made an indelible impression with her wit and mischievous personality. Perhaps, during one of her visits to the Prime Advantage office, she “fired” you or “gave you a raise”. Or you may have met her while she was holding court among the parents with a V.O. manhattan at our Georgetown graduation celebrations. Or you are one of my many friends whom she greeted over the phone with the question “Are you behaving?”
I’d need to write a book to share all of my memories of her, because I was close to her for my whole life, and for what turned out to be nearly half of hers. Allow me to share a few pictures, with memories, as a tribute:
1. A photo at my NYU Stern graduation, where she reluctantly accepted my grandfather’s traditional family tribute as I walked onstage: the Tarzan call. She hated when he did this, so he gave no warning, but he also didn’t have a chance to warm up. After he let out a fractured bellow, my friend said “That was your grandfather? I thought someone was getting thrown out by security.”
2. A photo of Margaret next to “her” statue at Honey Bear Farm in Powers Lake, WI. She had us convinced as children that the statue was created in her honor, with her likeness. When we got older and started to question the veracity of this tale, she doubled-down, and all the grandchildren got this picture wrapped as a Christmas gift.
3. The painting she created as a teenaged student at the Art Institute of Chicago, which hung in her guest room where I stayed the hundreds (thousands?) of times I slept over as a child. It now hangs in a prominent position in my own home.
4. The “prize” she and my grandfather received, along with my dad’s parents, for coming in last place in the Ball and Chain Bowling League in 1977. Grandma taught me so many things, including how to recognize different flowers, to do crossword puzzles, and to play cards and scrabble. Unfortunately she was also my bowling teacher. But I am the luckiest girl in the world to have her as my grandma.
