Yesterday my grandmother passed away. She was the only grandparent I've had for the last 20 years. When we were growing up we had a rite of passage where when we turned 12 years old we got to spend the summer at her house, working at the grocery store that she owned. I didn't do so well with my rite of passage, my mom came to pick me up by the weekend (in my defense my grandmother lived in a very, very, very small town and had sold the grocery store that year so there wasn't anything to do). Of course before my mom could come pick me up granny took me to get my ears pierced (which was against house rules), yeah, she was a rebel. Granny was very particular too, I'm sure that being OCD is genetic, and she is my direct line at my compulsiveness. Her house could never be "too clean". When I was in college in Kentucky, she lived 2 hours away so I'd go stay with her some weekends. Cleaning her refrigerator always reminded me of living in the dorms at BYU where on checkout you had to clean the edges out with a toothpick to checkoff. Seriously, who does that? Well my grandmother for one, I won't mention the other person in the room with me, oh I'm alone, strange. She was such a strong person, she started a business with no more than a basic education right at the ending of a depression in a very poverty stricken area. She had some serious Chutzpa. Really, if you knew her, you would totally agree. When I was in college I colored my hair a nice tangerine color and then pierced my nose. You should have heard her agreeing with the dismay and horror with my mother on the phone, then as soon as she hung up the phone it was as if I was the most beautiful person in the world, not at all the freak that I appeared to be to everyone else in the back woods of Kentucky. So here is a picture of my favorite Shirley...
90 years as reigning queen of chutzpa in Mousie, KY
In other news, thought I'd share this picture from the porch from my house in Hawaii...
That's the ocean you're seeing in the background, jealous yet? Yeah, me too since I have 3 more weeks till I see it in person!
So all in all a super fantastic, celebrating our chutzpa day!
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