My 96 year old great-grandma has seen a few things in her life.
Growing up on a farm in Arkansas, she and her husband sold their property for a Chevy and drove west to California to settle in the land of opportunity. She has picked cotton, cooked in restaurants, seen the US through both world wars, and lived long enough to spend holidays with her great great grandchildren.
She has an infectious and magnetic personality that exudes love through every movement and action it commands of her, and I plan to put her story on paper in the next year. She's already looking forward to her 100th birthday party, and creates a queen sized quilt each month with her arthritic fingers.
I often call her on Sundays and wanted to quickly share a few bits of wisdom she shared today:
- There is no use feeling sad and sorry for yourself - be happy and enjoy your life
- Everything you do will be better if you do it with love
Just after hanging up the phone with her, I headed for an ice cream shop down the street. Walking down the street toward me was an elderly man with a cane, slowly making his way down the San Francisco hill. Every five or six shuffled steps, he stopped walking, switched his heaping ice cream cone from his left to right hand, and took a big bite.
I stopped in a doorway and became one of four or five faces on the block staring at the happy old stranger as he enjoyed his cone. Another example of someone who has come to realize what's important: being happy and having fun.
