Memories of Your Great-Grandmother, Charlotte

Dear Juna, My Daughter,

I want to share with you my memories
of your great-grandmother Charlotte
So that as you grow, you will remember her too,
because she is a part of you,
just as she is a part of me
And forever will be.

My childhood was filled with snowbanks
and sledding on the slopes in the backyard
of my grandmother's house, where a little
creek ran through, and a great big tree grew,
where we walked through the woods
and down to the neighbor's pond and back again,
and grandma, always with a smile,
warming our fingers and toes.

My childhood was filled with Christmases
and summers sitting in her living room,
playing dominoes and always fruit jello,
winding up her music boxes and opening
the lids to find what treasures hid inside,
climbing on her mountain of a bed to
play oh so carefully with the dolls
that she had played with when she was a child,
and my grandma, showing me old photos
from her youth, she kept everyone alive
in her memories for me and you.

And as I grew, she was always there
a string of love attached us two,
I felt her presence and pride every time
I accomplished something great,

and every time I cried, I felt her shoulder too.

My grandmother was beautiful, a beauty
that came from a great big heart,
and she gave that heart to me and to you.
I never in my whole life heard a single
unkind word come from her lips,
she was generous and sweet and strong,
the strongest woman I ever knew.

There will never be another person
like your great-grandmother,
who made us who we are,
who gave us an incredible family
that anchors us in any storm.
You, my daughter, will carry her traits
and I will say one day, "How very much
like your great-grandmother you are!"

She will always be in my heart
that is bigger and stronger because I knew her
and she will always be in yours too.