keep on keepin' on (again)...
"i think we're all that way, a little bit." her words took me off guard. this eighty-something woman who grew up so poor she didn't even know what the "great depression" was, loved and married a man through world war two, raised four children and tons of grandchildren, and who i'd always known as "gramma" was telling me that not only was it ok to be gay, but that she might have also had similar thoughts. "god is love, after all."
we weren't talking about me. we were talking about my cousin, who is a lesbian, and to whom my mother had just sent a large package of "change ministries" materials. i never got a chance to tell her. she died several years before i even began to think about coming out, but she simultaneously comforted me with her words and fueled the growing struggle within me. and even now that i've moved on to other struggles, her last words to me, "keep on keepin' on" (possibly stolen from the allman brothers), still gives me that little bit of strength that seems to help my world keep turning.
i've blogged about her before, i know, but the current featured grownups challenge began on her birthday and i couldn't resist. ha. random memory: even when i was in college she'd still address her christmas presents to me "to: chris, from: santa" 
day seven. a photo that makes you happy.
oh my. i wish i had a digital picture of my grandma that i could post here, but i don't and neither do i have a scanner on hand. boo. instead: hermes.
the night he came to live with me.