When it rains, it pours

You might not know it from the posts, but things have been fairly somber around here. My grandmother, on my Dad's side, is very ill (Stage IV lung cancer). We're going to fly to California to visit her. That means a blogging hiatus, at least for awhile, until I sort everything out. The experience of my other grandma's passing is still fresh in my mind, and it's hard not to get emotionally exhausted with all that's happened over the past year.

Because Dad's mom lives on the other side of the country, I didn't get to see her often while I was growing up. But family is family, and blood ties seldom fade. The one conversation with Grandma I remember the most was a long walk we took a couple of years ago, with Dad acting as interpreter. I asked her about her entire life then - the toys she played with when she was a girl, the places she had lived in, how she raised my Dad and uncles to be the people they are today. It's weird to be able to condense a loved one to a single exchange, a moment when true communication occurs.