This week we said good-bye the the happiest person I have ever met in my life, Gram Rose. She was Justin's (my husband) grandmother and neither Justin nor his mom can remember her ever being angry. What a beautiful thing to be able to say about someone. She lived her life surrounded by people she loved, like her husband of 69 years, Joe Grabowski, and her love of others and of life was infectious.
I will always remember her sweet voice at our wedding singing the Polish celebratory song "Sto Lat." Justin and I had the opportunity to live in Poland for a year and go to the small farming village where his grandparents came from. When we came back we were able to talk to his grandparents in Polish, which made them proud but made us even prouder of them and all they had accomplished and given up so that Justin's mother and uncle and Justin and his brother could live the life they do now. So to be at our wedding and hear Gram Rose sing to us in Polish is something we will always treasure.
She will be greatly missed but the lessons she taught everyone will last. She will be a constant reminder to me of the power of a smile and a positive outlook on life.
