Yiayia

well, yiayia has gotten a good amount of attention on my blog recently. my sweet, goofy grandma passed away early monday evening. although it is definitely sad, i'm very happy for her. i'm pretty sure she is making people laugh in heaven!

i've been thinking about her and trying to reflect on what i have learned from her life. a lot is tied in with papou since they were so close.

i keep coming back to the example that she gave me in the area of marriage. she and papou didn't get married until they were 30. she had a serious boyfriend in college but held off on marriage. they had a good marriage but it wasn't perfect...i think that is important to remember. papou had a big vision and she jumped on board. that is the position that i would love to have at some point!

they came from very diverse backgrounds: yiayia was rich (she had braces as a teenager!) and papou spent a good portion of his life in an orphanage because his father couldn't afford to feed him. she balanced him out too. papou was more serious and conservative. yiayia was crazy. i definitely got my crazy facial expressions from her. life was fun for yiayia and she made our life much more enjoyable too. even with Alzheimer's, you could catch her "dancing" to music or coax her to demonstrate her cheerleading prowess for the nurse's aides!

we definitely will miss her presence in our lives, but we are thankful for the wonderful 91 years she had here!