Well much has happened since October. I gained another year, I went to Paris and Milan, and my grandma died.
So I turned another year old, but I enjoyed the time with my friends and my family.
I went to Paris!!! I love it there, it is my most favorite place in the world. I also got to go to Milan, which was a first and it was freezing there! I saw La Scala, the Duomo, the arch way with all the shishi stores and walked about 10 miles that day. But I loved every minute of it and would go again right now if I had the time off and the money.
The sad part in all of this, and I am tearing up just writing about it, is that the most wonderful woman in the world died less than two weeks ago. She was more than just my grandmother, she was a second mother to me and I think a little piece of me died with her. I am sad to think that she will never see me get married or hold my child in her arms. I am sad that anyone else that comes into my life will not get to meet her. She was able to charm just about everyone in life - from a baby to infinity. She had an ecclectic group of friends and even some "extended family" she adopted along the way. She will forever be missed but I think one day I will see her and my beloved grandpa again.
Life goes one but it is harder to get back on track. I don't think about it for a day and all is well, but the minute she pops into my head the tears come again. When I was cleaning, I found my birthday card from her and it made me realize that this is the last one I will ever get from her. I feel incomplete somehow and I wonder how long it will take for me to able to think about her and not feel the tears come. I think I have to get beyond this, after all I did have her for 33 years and it more than many of my cousins got so in that respect I feel blessed. I am also thankful for the special relationship I had with her. I knew I was her favorite and she even confided in me that it was true. I know it was taboo but I was the first granddaughter, the only one that lived with her for a time, and I always made time to spend with her. I know some of the younger ones probably would have spent more time with her if they could have but I was the lucky one.
So now all my grandparents are gone. Frances, my grandmother when I was 6 months old, Jack, my grandfather, when I was 19, Manuel, my grandfather, 29, and now Dora, after I turned 33. I was loved by all of them so that makes me lucky.
