Inspiration from Mimi

My grandmother died the day before Easter in 2007. She had a long battle with lung cancer and was such a fighter but the last month of her life was terrible. She was in such pain and discomfort and couldn't hide it which tore us all up. She finally let us admit her to the hospital for better pain management where she later died. She had not wanted to die in a hospital, but as someone who dedicated her life to caring for others (she was a nurse), I thought it was somewhat fitting and would've felt like home to her.

As we tried to plan her funeral and think about what to say about her, her children and other relatives and loved ones gathered to talk about her. What ensued was a sweet time of talking about her legacy and what she instilled in her children and grandchildren and many others. Mimi loved everyone unconditionally. She welcomed all into her home as was evidenced at Christmas and Easter and any other Sunday meal at her house - she invited neighbors, coworkers, soldiers from Ft. Jackson who were strangers to us, friends with no family, etc. She left a mark on everyone around her and I will forever feel a sense of loss that my own daughter never got to meet her.

But as we planned more details for her funeral, I flipped through her bible and her hymnal looking for things she may have flagged as important to her. There were many scriptures she loved and hymns as well. Each one still reminds me of her for different reasons and each one made an impact on her life. The one thing I found that seemed to be written specifically for her life, wasn't a scripture or a hymn. I found a card in her bible with the following Ralph Waldo Emerson quote on it:

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

Man - what an idea about success! Many of the things on my bucket list won't have a thing to do with the way Emerson described success here, but I hope the majority of them and my reasoning for wanting to do them can be traced back to this idea of success. And I hope with all that I do, I can make my Mimi proud!