To Grahm!

Day: Forty

Photo taken on Friday, September 10, 2010 around 10pm at night in our living room.

It's the year 2001 and I'm a sophomore in college. I'm vacuuming my dorm room when the call comes in. A vice clamps around my heart and I dissolve into tears as I try to say goodbye to Grandma Raab. All I hear are shallow breaths in my ear and I babble as much as I can to her, hoping that she can hear me where ever her soul may be at this point until my father comes on and asks me if I want to come home tonight or tomorrow. "Tomorrow night," I choke out, "Grahm would want me to go to my classes tomorrow and then come home."


Little did I know that this decision would probably change my life forever and also keep me from ever saying a proper goodbye to one of the most precious people I hold dear to me. No one could have asked for a better grandmother: she was kind and generous, she would let me crawl into her bed when she stayed over so I could run my hands over her soft skin of her arms as I begged her to tell me the same story of her shoe falling off in the subway, she saw countless movies with all of us, bought us anything we wanted when we visited her in Fresh Meadows, and she also took me to every major building in NYC ranging from the "waterfall building" (Trump Tower) to the World Trade Center.


To this day, I still tear up when I think of her fondly, especially if I open up the sealed bag that contains her scarves I used to play dress-up in and inhale her sweet scent that still clings to the fabric. So on this day, I make sure to celebrate her life since the tragic happenings of September 11th kept me from flying home to New York the day after she passed. Grandma Raab always had A&W rootbeer cans in the fridge and Pepperidge Farm cookies in her cabinets (Lidos mostly since it was her favorite but have been discontinued unfortunately). In 2002, I decide to start a tradition that my dad fully supports as well as Moma and the Sibs, that we will all crack open a can of A&W and a bag of Milanos to toast a wonderful woman that will forever hold a special place in our hearts.


I love you, Grahm!