The Most Important Thing To Learn Over 100 Years
#2: Undo/Redo Mini-Essay Series of 2024
Granny and my son are—or were—100 years apart.
A week ago I went to the celebration of life for a woman who passed away one month before her 103rd birthday. She was the mother of a friend of mine and was “Granny” to everyone.
After Kai was born, Robbie hosted our Mentorship Circle for a year at her house. Every week Granny was there, waiting in her chair for smiles and hugs. Later, as Kai began to toddle, Robbie watched him once or twice a week so I could write, work, or go to Dr appointments.
Granny's face would light up as Kai played around her for hours every week. And each time I'd marvel at the magic of their ages and the space between them.
What can happen in a lifetime? The world morphed while Granny stayed married to her love for 70+ years (wow!), had four children, twenty-five grandchildren, and even more great-grandchildren.
Granny lived through:
The depression
WWII
The Cold War
Civil Rights
Protections for women
Empires falling
New countries forming
So. Much. More.
And yet, as I try to comprehend a century of change, knowing Granny lived through it, that wasn't what was discussed at her funeral. Even her accomplishments were skimmed over.
Her legacy was her faith. Her legacy was her love for people. That's all that usually matters in the end.
As Granny neared the end of her life, occasionally she would quietly confess to me that she didn't feel good. That she hated being still and being cared for day in-and-out. It is the struggle of just existing.
I'm a nobody for her to confide in those times she did. She was 60+ years older than me! But because of what I went through the years before, to a degree I understood.
When we allow ourselves to exist, we demonstrate humans are designed to be loved. It defies the false philosophy that our worth is in what we produce. And we become a pillar to remind those watching that resilience is possible.
Existing is meaningful and important job.
I honor Granny for her century-long legacy. But I also admire her for how she lived her last few years in the short time I knew her. Because what greater thing can we learn from life but that we are loved? And become content in this security?
I'm grateful that today she knows that love like no other.
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Read the Rest of the 2024 Mini-Essay Series starting here
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I'm guessing she didn't think of you as a nobody but as somebody important.