09/05/2026
Today has been a strange day for me. It's hard to believe that it's been almost 3 years...I got 47, but I would take another 47 in a heartbeat. Today would have been my grandmother's 105th birthday. ❤️
This woman shaped a lot of who I am and how I look at the world. She wasn't afraid to graduate college in the 40s, or to be a single woman, or march into Bobby Bowden's office in Florida and get her grandson an autograph. Things changed in life, some she could control and others she couldn't, but she kept going for 102 years. Some paths she chose, others were chosen for her.
One of my favorite poems is Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken". I think we all want life to fall into place the way we want, but sometimes we just have to hang on and enjoy the ride. She exemplified that as she navigated her years on this Earth, and luckily I think she passed down the trait that sometimes you have to let the ship steer you. That's why it's so important to us to hear your thoughts, ideas, and reactions as we build this little gift shop.
About a month ago I wrote a blog for the website about how to deal with change. She had seen more change than anyone I could imagine, yet she always seemed to adapt. This picture is her playing air hockey in her 90s. I thought it fit perfectly.
We used to send letters back and forth across the country, then they got rid of long distance calling charges and we talked on the phone. The final years were a lot more face-to-face. We never really tried social media, so this is new.
Happy birthday, Grandma!
If you had asked me twenty years ago what I'd be doing today, owning a gift shop would have been pretty far down the list.
