My Grandmother was one of a kind. She was kind and loving and supportive of me in my early years. She was just an awesome Grandmother. She was taken away from us too early. I sometimes wonder how different life would have been with her around. How much different I would have been. How much different the family would be. I know she loved me. I remember spending many a summer night with her. Carl Junior and Todd would be there at times as well. Those were some of the best days of my early childhood.

Funny, in those days, kids were allowed in bars. And every neighborhood, it seemed, had a corner tavern. Grandma and Grandpa Norman would cart us along and give us quarters to play pinball or the bowling game at Vernon’s Bar. They’d give us money to run across the street to the corner grocer to buy some comic books and candy. Then we’d sit at one of the tables and read, play, daydream or nap as they drank a few beers or whiskey sours, smoked Pall Malls and Chesterfields and share the weeks gossip and events. After a bit, we’d wrap it up and go back to the house. Grandpa would watch the news and Grandma Esther would call around to friends and gossip. I remember well her conversations with Aunt Bea Pitt.

It was a different world back then. And Grandma Esther was one of the best things about that bygone era.

Grandma Esther loved the beer barrel polka. She loved the US. She loved her children to a fault. She loved her Grandchildren (I’m certain that would have been to a fault as well. lol) She was the first person to teach me how to be patriotic. To love my country. She was highly superstitious. She loved people. She was trusting.

These are the things about her that I remember through the eyes of a child. I was around 12 or so when she passed.

The thing I remember most is how much I loved her, how much she loved me and how safe I felt with her.

I know life in those days was not perfect. We all have our faults. There are other times to speak of these things.

For now, this is my remembrance of a woman who in my memory was an awesome Grandmother. Who loved me. Who I loved and still love dearly.

Happy Birthday, Grandma Esther.