Memorial Services

Aaron and I in DC for my grandmother's memorial services. There were giant flower arrangements and so many people paying their respects. We heard Amazing Grace in Korean. Lovely services for a special lady.

Another loss - Grandmother Yi

It's almost too hard to believe but just two weeks since my grandmother on my dad's side passed away, we lost my maternal grandmother last night.

I didn't meet this grandmother until I was a teenager. The life she lived in South Korea was a mystery pieced together by the stories my mom told and the photos I closely inspected. She lived through the Japanese Occupation, the Korean War, raised four girls and two boys on not-a-lot, then moved to a strange country with a language she didn't speak. (There is an aunt missing in each picture. I guess she was the photographer?)

While thinking about her life, my other grandmother's and really all our grandparents... it sinks in that we are coming to the end of a great generation. They were the ones that rolled up their sleeves, buckled down, and got the job done. The end of an era.

Remembering Grandma

Grandma (far right) with her sisters

Grandpap, me, and Grandma at my RIT MFA Graduation 1998

Grandpap, Emily and Grandma at her Shippensburg University Graduation 2008

Today was my Grandmother's funeral services. Like with my Grandpap, I said a few words.

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I knew this day would be hard, but I knew I would be fine because my Grandma taught me to be that way.

Grandma was the toughest person I knew. That might have been hard to believe to look at her but it's true.

She had arthritis for years but I never heard her complain once.

She did not hesitate to get up at dawn to put the Christmas turkey in the oven.

She was the last one to sit down after every dish had been washed.

Mowing the lawn was her favorite pastime as well as helping Maggie get groundhogs with a shovel.

She refused painkillers even when she had broken her leg.

She hung her laundry in the middle of winter.

To me she was like a pioneer. The original Martha Stewart. Grandma taught me how to knit, do latch hook rugs, blow bubbles with a bar of soap and a spool, make grape juice, apple sauce, strawberry jam and pickles.

She was a card shark.

I know she had physical pain as well as heartache in her lifetime but I never saw her cry until the day she lost her husband.

This past year has been a long goodbye. Each time I saw her, there was a little less of her there but she still was tough as nails. Just a couple months ago she told me if I put a chair next to the sink she could dry the dishes.

I am so glad this tough lady, had a soft landing. Passing away quietly, in her own bedroom. Our Heavenly Father welcomes her home, to be be with Grandpap, and maybe now she will finally take it easy for a little bit.

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Grandma

Grandma and I, RIT Graduation 1998

Today my Grandma quietly and mercifully passed away at home.

The past year since she was diagnosed with melanoma has been like reading a book you are sad to finish. You know the end is coming and will miss the main character so much.