seekingferret | (no subject)

My grandmother, my mother's mother, passed away last Wednesday at age 91. She's been struggling with a variety of ailments for the past several years, two weeks ago she added liver cancer to the list and it was very quick after that. My mother was there when she died and says that it was peaceful.

My grandma was the person who taught me to solve crosswords, I have many memories of sitting next to her in her kitchen with the NY Times Sunday magazine working on the puzzle together. She solved in pen... erasable pen. (My mom says when she was younger the pens weren't erasable) Her house was just a few blocks from the beach, so after the puzzle we would pack up sandwiches and walk down to the beach. I would run around in the sand with my siblings and cousins and the grownups would talk or read or swim.

She raised four kids to be smart and kind and thoughtful and loving, just the way she was. At the funeral and Shiva everyone had stories of her overwhelming generosity to the people she loved. I remembered that when I was about seven I was obsessed with reruns of the Adam West Batman show and for my Batman themed birthday she found a pattern and sewed me a complete Batman costume, which I assure you I wore for more than just the birthday party.

She was an amazing cook, too. Her latke recipe is one of my most treasured recipes and it's one of a million ways she lives on in me and everyone else who knew her.