I AM GRATEFUL…
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! This Thanksgiving is pretty different for us. It is our first Thanksgiving as a married couple not living in NYC, it is my first Thanksgiving without my Mamaw (who was the queen of Thanksgiving… best dressing you have ever tasted, pies for days, the glue of our family… you get the picture), and lastly it is MOVING weekend for us! We are staying in Houston this weekend and celebrating with a big dinner at my sister-in-law’s home this afternoon, and tomorrow the movers arrive!
I have so much to be thankful for this year (and every year), but today I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the years I got to spend with my grandparents. All four of them. I lost my paternal grandmother to Alzheimer’s not too long after I graduated from college, but when I turned 30 I still had three of my four grandparents as very active members of my life. Compared to most of my friends, it seems fairly rare to get to this stage of life and to still be able to share it with your grandparents. To have them watch you marry the love of your life, to see you follow your dreams and to tell you how proud they are of you, to meet and love on your first-born child, and to see that you made it back home to Texas (where they always wanted you) is no small gift.
I am unconditionally grateful for the memories with my grandparents, but what I will never be able to fully explain in words is how bless I am to have them as role models in my life. Both sets of grandparents showed our family what it means to love in the truest form of the word, but yet they did it in such different ways. My paternal grandfather shows his love through his actions as words do not come as easy to him. He dedicated his life to taking care of my uncle (with Down syndrome) and later in life to his wife who relied on him completely when Alzheimer’s got the best of her. He never once complained and he always gave himself completely and selflessly. My maternal grandparents had the picture perfect marriage, the kind of doting love you see in the movies. My grandfather would constantly remind her how lucky he was to be married to her and tell her daily how beautiful she was. When our family decided it was time to move them out of their home earlier this year his response was honest and simple, “I can live anywhere as long as it is with you”, he told my grandmother. He always had the right words and the kind heart that comes with them.
In honor of my grandparents, I hope to be a little more like them this year – to spread a little more love around. So much of life is what you put into it. Tell the people you love what they mean to you. Do something completely selfless because it is important to someone who is important to you. Be thankful for the time you have with the ones you love this Thanksgiving.
