I know some things spiraled out of your control and I know it was very hard to lose your independence, but you marched through your life like a champion. Thank you for teaching me strength.

Thank you for raising four healthy children. Because of you, I have aunts, uncles, and cousins that I adore.

Thank you for letting me climb into your bed in the morning, and for letting me snuggle into your warm and worn flannel nightgown, even though we both knew I was getting too old for that.

Thank you for always feeling proud of me, even though I was a slow reader and struggled with math.

Thank you for encouraging me to write and draw and dance.

Thank you for loving your son—my dad—and thinking that his wife—my mother—was perfect.

Thank you for believing in my dad when he wanted to be an architect. You always knew best.

Thank you for crying every single time we got ready to drive back home after visiting you. Your tears will forever be a treasured memory.

For hunting down that pinky ring where with our family crest emblazoned on it.

For your help organizing the epic Easter egg hunt in your backyard year after year. It was always point of major significance for us kids, but was probably quite stressful for you.

For telling me to stop arguing with my parents. Only you could tell me that in a way that I would actually listen.

Thank you for marrying my grandfather and teaching me that that some people are meant to be together, and that marriage really can last a lifetime.

Thank you for trying to take me and my sister to church. Thank you for never giving up.

Thank you for hiding any depression or sadness or anger from me. I don’t think I was mature enough to see it. I don’t think I ever would have been.

Thank you for letting me ask you hundreds of questions about your life. Where you’ve been and what you’ve seen and done and who you’ve known has always been fascinating to me.

It always will be.

Thank you for quitting smoking eventually.

Thank you for letting me help you prepare dinner, even if it was just cutting some string beans.

Thank you for telling me that a drawing I did was beautiful, even though it wasn’t.

Thank you for telling me that I was beautiful, even if I felt anything but.

Thank you for loving me in that special way that only grandparents and their grandchildren can feel.

Thank you for passing peacefully. I can only be comforted in the fact that you weren’t in pain.

Thank you for being. You will never know it but I wouldn’t be who I am today without you. Then again, maybe you knew it all along.