Memories...

So today as I sat with my almost 91 year old great grandmother, I realized that the memories she has made in her lifetime are beyond my comprehension. At this stage in her life, she is frail and forgetful. She is having problems that we cannot even understand, but yet when she is with us, she is fun and funny. She has a sense of humor that makes every doctor laugh. She has burdens and has had her heart broken too many times; she has endured things that our generation cannot even imagine; and, she has buried loved ones that no mother, wife or grandmother should have to bury.

And as I sat and stroked her back and assured her as best as I could that she was okay, I knew that "ok" is not even close to describing what this wonderful woman is. She is amazing in so many ways, and she has touched so many people. She has passed on her stories to my children, her great-great grandchildren. She has told them about being locked in the school house after the teacher left the day she got in trouble at school; she has told them about her daughter and her son; and she has told them stories that they will hold dear throughout their life.

The longer I sat with her, the more I thought of the millions of memories that she must have. The people that would be waiting in heaven to welcome her home and the people here on earth that would miss her when she was gone. I thought about the times she cared for us, the times she left a bowl of pudding and half of a snickers bar in her fridge for us after school. I thought about the times we would all fight over whose turn it was to sleep in grandma's room and hear her bedtime stories. The times that she visited the hospital for the birth of all the numerous great-great grandchildren that she was blessed with. The times that she would sneak into our rooms when we were teenagers and "steal" our dirty laundry for us. The times that I would see her taking her walks around our yard, when she would pause just long enough to admire a bird or something she may have seen in the field.

The memories that I have of her cannot even encompass the life she has lived, since two thirds of her life she lived before I was born. I cannot even imagine all the memories that she must have. The good and the bad. The heart breaking and those filled with love... And I realized, that there is no greater purpose on this earth than touching the many hearts and lives that she has touched in her lifetime. That there is no greater way to be remembered than by sharing the multitude of memories that one has made.