100 Years Old

I was at a funeral yesterday. It was a celebration of life of someone I wish I could have known better but knew well enough. She died one month shy of her 101st birthday. I've never known anyone who lived that long, can you imagine what that must be like? Lots of people like to mention how they would never want to live that long because of all of the people you lose along the way, but what about the things and people you do get to see as well? What about the history and experiences you can have? What about the loves and lives you can share, so many more than most people.

She was small in stature, with a tough as nails exterior and an organized mind like you would not believe yet a sweetness you could. Can you imagine all that she saw and did starting in 1911? So many things came and went in her life, good and bad, new and old.  Family came first to her of course and most important to her was that she was a wife, a mother of two, grandmother of five and great-grandmother of 6. She did cross-stitch, read several books a week, could recall details in her own and other people's lives half her age!  When I first met her she was 92 years old and frying a steak in a cast iron skillet in an apartment she lived in alone; only because her husband with whom she had been married to for 69 years had only recently passed away. She sent many cards for birthdays, holidays, and notes to say hello and how she was doing. She had her own way of doing things and saying things as well. She would laugh just as easily as she would tell you you were wrong about something and she would precisely lay out why. She took her time with things but she sure could tell a story that kept you rapt in the details and waiting for the punchline in that old Baltimore way.

We were planning a visit to see her this weekend, I hadn't seen her since her 99th birthday nearly two years ago. I couldn't be there for her 100th because of hurricane Irene...

I'm gonna miss her but can only feel a melancholy happiness. I'm glad  I am able to say I knew someone so wonderful who had seen so much, and I got to be a tiny little part of that.