Dorothy Magraw

I haven’t posted in a while, been dealing with a loss in the family. I wasn’t going to blog about it because it’s personal and I wasn’t sure that my blog was the right place to talk about this. But then I realized that none of that matters because this person was someone that was extremely important to me and I should absolutely tell you about her and what a wonderful person she was.

My grandmother passed away last week. She was 101 years old and lived a full, vibrant and loving lifetime. She was many things to those around her; fiercely loyal, fun loving, church going, and above all else; completely giving of herself. She constantly organized clothing drives for those in need, bake sales for local food pantries, she was a member of countless charities, and (probably the greatest feat of all) took me and Brother Bill in when we were just wee tykes when our mother passed away, 37 years ago.

Up until the summer of last year, she maintained her own home. She did her own cleaning, her own cooking, her even own entertaining (yes, she still had friends over for tea and home-made desserts). Sure, we did things like her food shopping, her laundry, and whatever else she would let us do for her. But think about it…this woman was over 100 years old at the time! Her mental clarity was amazing, her love and support for all those around her was unfaltering. The only aspect which gave any indication that the years were moving along for her, was that her hearing had slipped mostly away. But that only meant folks had to lean in close to talk into her ear - something she was glad of, for it always allowed her the opportunity to sneak in a hug or a squeeze of the hand, to those that she was talking with.

Roughly half way though last summer, she began having some complications with her quality of life and the decision was made to have her live in assisted living. She’d been fiercely against that idea for years; “It’s my house and I’m going to die in my house!”, but I’m happy to say that once she made the transition, she loved it. She loved having people around to talk to, she loved the nurses - and they loved her. (She was only there for 6 months, but in that short time, she touched so many of them, that during her visiting hours at her wake, a number of them actually came to say their goodbyes. They couldn‘t say enough good things about her.)

Even at 101 years of age, she was still quite active. (Ok, so maybe I could run faster than her, but there’s a good chance that her will would have kept her moving long after I’d run out of breath.) We spent time visiting with her almost daily and the nurses were always telling us how she’d be moving around on her own, up and down the hallways, even during the middle of the night. In fact, the night before she had her stroke, she was up at 4am, and down in the dining hall. She was hungry and was looking to see if anyone was interested in making her some French toast (she loved French toast!).

But alas, the following day, she did have a stroke - a bad one which placed her deep into a coma. We rushed her into the hospital for the weekend and the doctors ran all their tests to see how she was doing. The news wasn’t good, and we knew our time with her was short. The decision was made to move her back to the nursing home for final care. Besides, the nurses thought the world of her and we knew she’d be more than well taken care of under their watch.

We were with her each day, and we were with her at the end. And she knew that we were there, of that I am certain. Her breathing responded to our words - our words which were full of sadness, but also full of gratitude for all that she had done for us over the many, many years. We told her we loved her, that we were sad and would miss her, but that we would be ok. We told her that it was ok to let go, to join her husband and the other loved ones that had gone on before her. And shortly afterwards, she passed from this journey onto the next one ,peacefully and at ease.

The sheer volume of those that turned out to pay their respects was nothing short of amazing - but it wasn’t surprising, given the number of people she’d touched in her lifetime. She will indeed live on in the hearts and minds of many, many dear friends and family. Mine, not the least.

Thanks for listening. I'll get back to the motorcycle theme in my next post.