102 years

If my grandmother had lived she would've been 102 years today. I wish she had. She was a grand woman, who definitely knew what she wanted. Some people say I'm like her. Which I take as a compliment.

My grandmother was a smoker, which means that she ate quickly, and if everybody around the table wasn't up to speed, she used to go around picking up our plates. If you weren't finished you had to hold on to your dish. It became a joke in the family, but she didn't mind. She ruled the family. She was 84 when she died.

However, we have had quite different lives. She had her first child at 22, being unmarried, then another child with another man, then yet two children with the man she finally married. It couldn't have been easy in those days, but she was feisty. And I loved her.

Even more so, my great grandmother was only 15 when she got my grandmother. And unmarried. This was in 1911 and I'm sure a scandal back then. However, she did marry the father later. I was a young kid when she died, but I have visited her grave. I have vague memories of her, but she must've been something. I wish I would've had the opportunity to get to know her.