She lived through horrid poverty and family illness as a child, married my grandpa less than a week after graduating high school and turning 18. Chased his naval boat across the country, with my 3 month old uncle on her hip. Ran the little village general store all on her own. And oh, she pitched a fit when Grandpa said they were buying a farm. She wanted nothing to do with it. But then there she was, fixing breakfast at 3am so Grandpa and their boys could get to the farm chores. Adopting every stray cat she could get her hands on. She loved a good dog, but Grandma was a cat lady, thru and thru. She never wanted that farm, but oh boy, she wasn't leaving it. She and Grandpa were married for 70 years and she lived just as long as that down a dirt road, at the end of a dusty driveway, in an old farmhouse surrounded by corn and barns and the echoing sound of our childhood whiffle ball games still ringing on the wind.
The last of my grandparents to go, survived by three sons, ten grandkids and fourteen great-grandkids and that is her legacy, the one she is really proud of. Most people would have thought Grandpa was the glue that held this family together, but it was Grandma all along.
She always joked that when she finally got to heaven, that Grandpa would ask her, "What took you so long?!" But neither one of them have to wait another day.
Ava Marie - May 3, 1925 - August 30th, 2016
Photographer unknown, but Grandma loved her hummingbirds, so that's why I chose this one.
