Gram

Gram was a very special person who always seemed to have a story for everything - and I loved hearing every single one of them. For the past 10 years or so, when she had begun to lose her faculties, our conversations were still very lucid. When being told that she would not be able to recognize anyone anymore, she still recognized me and we still told those same stories over again.

Before I go any further, I think we all owe a tremendous amount of debt and gratitude to Aunt Nancy and Uncle Joe's family for taking her in, caring for her, and basically taking responsibility for her well-being. That is not a damnation of anyone else, but an honest appreciation of the truth.

Gram's passing signals the end of an era. We are no longer a family of young parents with kids or teens with visions of adulthood. We are now the grandparents, and the older parents. We have leaped one, and in some cases, two, generations, and as we have grown, some of us have grown together while others have grown apart. I am personally guilty of that

But, this is about Margaret Francis - mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, mother-in-law, aunt, friend, sister, wife... There was a time when being a member of this family did not feel like you were a member of a family, but of a dynasty. That began to change once grandpop passed away, and we've been doing our best ever since. Being part of this family felt like being a part of royalty - and no matter if you were born into the family or married into it, you felt it.

This is not my grandmother here. This is my grandmother here (point to heart), and she will live until the last one of us in this room shuffles off their mortal coils, and when we are lucky enough to see her in the next life, we will see the smiling, laughing, loving person we all remember her best to be.

I love you, gram, and I miss you, and I'll see you again, with grandpop, and feel like a member of royalty again. Hopefully, I can do my part to restore that feeling back here on earth first.