It is a normal course of life for family elders to pass before the younger family members. This is how life works and this fact should make the loss of these beautiful and beloved people easier to deal with. This is the last thought I had when I was told of my grandmother’s death. My first thought of many was of the last family reunion I attended. Playing with my cousins in my grandparent’s back yard and ending up under my grandmother’s feet in the kitchen. I remember watching her in amazement like a human tornado cooking, setting the table, tending to the family members in the living room, laughing, and conversing with several people at the same time. It was just amazing to me to watch her spinning from one room to another, one situation to another, always smiling in fluent and constant motion. Oh, she was always asked by almost everyone if she needed help, her response was always, “No thanks, I got it, or no thanks, I’m fine. That was my grandmother in a phrase, No thanks I got it. I am a blessed woman to have been raised and loved by strong and self sufficient women. This was her legacy to be passed down to her daughters and their children. I am sure that if my grandmother were to be asked about this legacy she would shrug it off as a necessity of being a mother and caring for her family, but there is a beauty in the strength that can be seen in the faces and actions of those Dorothy Simmons loved and cared for. It’s this legacy I will pass on to my children and their children. As a family, this is our responsibility, all of us who were touched by this amazing woman, who made loving and caring for a family look effortless and natural. I can only hope that my grandchildren will on day look at me with that same amazement and love that I looked at my grandmother Dorothy with. I love you “Red Grandma”, you are safely kept in my heart.
Justine Borchetta
