Goodbye grandma

I've been blessed with a very supportive family. My parents, brother, aunts, uncles and countless family friends have always been there to support my every decision and offer encouragement for as long as I can remember. But I think my biggest fan, my biggest supporter, was and always will be my grandma.

A large chunk of my childhood was spent in my grandma's warm little home on Sawgrass Boulevard. There, she taught my brother and I the proper table etiquette and manners and let us play games on an ancient box computer in her bedroom. She would make us "mashed potato soup" when we begged for it, after creating the dish one afternoon by surprise when she added just a little too much water. We rode bikes around the block of her neighborhood, and swam in neighbor Bev's pool every summer.

She went to my chorus concerts, horse show competitions, piano recitals and school talent shows. She fought to come and sit through my long and boring graduation ceremonies, even though she was too sick and weak at the time to go.

No matter when I talked to grandma, whether it was during the short drive from her house to ours, over the phone while I was away at college, in a hand written letter, or from the side of her hospital bed, she always ended the conversation by telling me how proud she was of me. I can't remember one time when she didn't tell me how proud she was. Her admiration is my drive to do more and to be the best person I can be.

Even when grandma was being difficult, and I know we've all seen her stubborn side before, she always told me to "keep being a good girl" and "keep my head up." She was the first to call and congratulate me on winning first place at a horse show, and she along with my mom, was there to console me the day I experienced my first death -- a good friend in middle school.

It was important to me to say something here today at her funeral because I felt a special bond with my grandma. Not only for the time she spent with me as I grew up, but as a writer, she helped channel my passion for the written word through her own poems and short stories.

Although she may be gone now, I see her strength inside everyone of my aunts, but specifically my mom. She taught us all to love God and just to be a good person. She taught us to be strong and fight for what we want in life. But most of all, she showed us what it was like to be loved and how to love in return.

Until I see you again, grandma.

"May the road rise to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face. May the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again, May the Lord hold you in the palm of His hand."