The Kindness of Unconditional Love

"Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do.  Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children."
― Alex Haley

My grandmother died 15 years ago today.  Remembering her is bittersweet because I still miss her.  She was about a month shy of her 87th birthday, but her death still shocked me because I expected her to live probably forever.  Even as the adult I was when she died, I could not fathom my life without her.

This morning, my siblings and I traded memories of our grandmother via text.  It included "Beauty," which is what she called her granddaughters.  But through the sadness and the great memories what shines powerfully is her unconditional love.  Always there, never wavering.  We found it when we ran into her arms, when we called her from our beds in the middle of the night when we woke up scared...  It was there at the other end of the phone when we called -- collect, of course -- from college.  I never doubted her love.  And that is a tremendous kindness -- a gift, really.  My grandmother's unconditional love continues to sustain me and I suspect it always will.