I spent this past weekend in Northern California visiting my grandma who is here from Guam and my aunts and uncles whom I hadn’t seen in years. I walked in with the expectation of a grand surprise for my grandma only to see her sitting there not being able to see me….my heart broke. I went up to her and gently lifted her face towards mine and said Grandma – it’s me, your favorite. She looks up and there it is…. the familiar smile…. the excitement. Oh, how I’ve missed her.

The weekend was such a blur… and I wish I could just rewind just a bit and sit with her… embrace a moment. Hold her hand… tell her again…. I love her and I’ve missed her. I wish I could rewind a bit further….and take it all in…. the talks in her room… the talks in the wee hours of the morning while she was baking bread…. the silence while we sat next to each other in church…. the advice she would give me… the laugh…oh how I’d bottle up her laugh and her smile…. the smile that made everything better.