06/02/2026
I want to share something, a memory that is really special to me, that I hold close to my heart.
I am thankful to have been raised in a home with strong women who were honest but also supportive, loving and caring. We all know this is a tough world and it's important to feel loved by the people who should love you the most.
My grandma was one of these people. She was a strong piller in our home. Looking back I don't know if anyone loved us kids more than her. She corrected us and was stern and honest, but she did it lovingly. Even though she could be brutally honest, she always loved more, and she lifted us up more.
In the summertime or the weekends we'd get up, eat breakfast and go hang out with Grandmal. She had an apartment downstairs so we could visit with her anytime. She taught us how to play Chinese checkers, rummy, solitare and a slew of other games. We also had our favorite shows we'd watch together, Jeopardy and the golden girls. In the summertime I'd sit outside with her, by the big pine, and practice schoolwork. She had a school room desk and she'd sit me down and practice writing and math.
Grandmal wasn't in the best health, she had worked at Baltimore chemical factory when she was middle aged and it messed up her lungs. She always struggled to breathe. She only could walk very short distances before having to sit down. She also had terrible arthritis in her fingers and had osteoporosis, so she couldn't stand up straight. She was also older than a typical granny because by the time I was born she was in her mid 60's.
Grandmal's body had been worked hard her whole life. My grandpa served during WW11 and he wasn't the same person when he came back. While he was overseas Grandmal stayed at her mom's house until he came back. My Grandpa died when my mom was only 8, from a heart condition. So in the 1950's Grandmal was a single woman working hard to support her 3 young children, in a time where it wasn't so common for women to be working outside the home.
So Grandmal knew what hard really was, she'd been through a few things. Even so it never stopped her. She'd go on vacations with us and day trips to Hershey park, the national aquarium, the Baltimore zoo and the science center. We just needed to make sure there was plenty of areas for her to sit down.
We'd go to O.C. and sit out on the back porch of the condo and I'd people watch with Grandmal. She very rarely could walk down to the beach but she said how the salt water helped her lungs. I loved art and I'd sit next to her and sketch things, usually farm related. My heart was always at the farm. Growing up I didn't excell at anything including my art, but even so I was passionate about certain things. Grandmal loved watching me sketch. That particular day she sat with me as I tried to sketch people walking by. I knew I wasn't very good, so I always said I wanted to be a cartoon artist because In my mind I knew cartoon artists had more flexibility 😅.
Grandmal knew I was passionate about art and looked through my sketches and would critique me, but she never made me feel like I was bad at it. She told me that when I grew up she was going to send me to art school, and she really met it. She encouraged me and made me excited about art, she was a wonderful role model.
Looking back I now know. I wasn't very good at art back then, that's not why she was going to send me to art school. What she saw was the passion in my heart. Passion is where it begins, everytime.
Let's encourage one another. Critiquing is necessary but don't make that the larger voice. If you critique, show encouragement and love more, especially when it's a seed of passion that is newly sprouted, you need water it, nurture it, and be gentle with it. Fertilizing is also necessary but too much will kill a young shoot.
It costs nothing to compliment, it doesn't make the one complimenting any less. Let's be a light in other people's lives and love and encourage one another. Life is not a competition. The only one we should be competing with is oneself, to do better. Let's pray for one another to succeed and excel at the thing they are passionate about.
