I Wish I Was More Like...

My Grandma Ruth Ann is the most patient, strong, loving, and selfless person that I know. I’ve never met a person that can have over a dozen people in her house, and still be so patient, and make us all feel overwhelmed with love. Someday, I hope to be, just like her.
My grandma had her first kid, my Uncle Richard, when she was eighteen, with my Grandpa Frank. In the following years she had my mom Dawn, then my Uncle Lloyd, Aunt Elizabeth, and Uncle Kelly. For the most part, I would say that they behaved themselves as well as five kids could. Every once in a while they would do something bad. Like the time they accidently threw a potato through the window of their house. I, obviously, was not there but I can imagine their horror when the glass cracked, shattered, and then was strewn across the floor in the house. It’s at times like these that my grandma is as clam as anyone could possibly be.
There was this time, when I was about four, that I remember very well. I was looking through her jewelry, which wasn’t unusual. I still do that almost every time that I’m at her house. There was a necklace, and earrings that were a dark gold color. They both had a bunch of heart charms on them in different sizes and shapes, and when you picked it up, or moved while wearing them they jingled, and chimed. I was amazed by this new find, and wanted a necklace just like this for myself. But then, I realized that I didn’t have my ears pierced. How was I supposed to wear the earrings? Later that night, my grandma came up to me holding the necklace and a bracelet just like it that I hadn’t remembered seeing before. I looked at it with amazement as she explained that she had put the earrings together to make a bracelet. She gave them to me, and I wore them whenever I had a chance. I remember wearing them at my preschool graduation. And, even now, I still have them.
When I was in fourth grade, my grandpa Frank passed away due to a severe heart attack. This was a big deal for me; I had never lost a family member before. I missed about a week of school because we had to go up north, to my grandma’s for the funeral. The viewing wasn’t so bad, but the funeral was hard on all of us. Even though she had lost the person she loved more then anything, and knew the best, my grandma helped the rest of us stay on our own two feet for that long, sorrow filled weekend.
My grandma always puts others before herself, and supports us all in every way that she can. And it’s for the love, and support that I am most thankful for. Even when I’m having the worst day, I can think of her, and feel uplifted. I wrote this essay not only because I want to be like her, but because I would like to thank her for all that she’s done.