I haven't updated lately because I
have busy with the business of my Grandmother's funeral.
Its a mixed blessing, I guess, because
on the one hand, I miss her very much and I can't believe she won't
be around to see me achieve everything she wanted for me in life. But
on the other, even at her funeral it was obvious to see the legacy
she has left behind. Our family is tight-knit and loving and the
church – where she spent most of her time and energy, raising
money, organizing committees, and just being a general bad ass –
was packed with people whose lives she had touched.
There were two(2) priests officiating
because one was the regular priest and one had grown up with my
grandmother and wanted to do his best for her in anyway he could. His
eulogy was so sweet and touching I nearly broke down. I know my
Yiayia would have been so proud of him and of everyone there. If she
attended the funeral, I know that she would have been thrilled at how
it went.
After the funeral, and the burial, and
the reception afterwards, we – all the cousins – went to her
place to look through her things. My Yiayia was forever trying to get
people to take her stuff. She was a practical woman and knew that,
being 88, she wasn't going to need the stuff for so much longer. Her
greatest wish was to see the things she loved in life go to someone
who would care for them.
We felt... uncivilized, I guess, going
through her things but, to be honest, nothing would have made her
happier to know that they were going to a good home. We anicipated
problems but, in the end, we are all family and we didn't have a
single argument.
I took some books that she left me and
some more books. And a ton more books. She had a billion books about
Cyprus that no one really wanted and I, thinking about a possible
future grad school thesis, didn't want them to be thrown out. They
were all these independent publications that I wasn't going to find
in a University library.
She had about 30 copies each of
the Iliad, and the Odyssey, with about 10 copies each of the Orestia
and the Oedipus Cycle. I, unfortunately, have all of these books
(except the Iliad, which I took a copy of) so I couldn't take any.
But my brothers and my cousins took some so there were less left in
the end.
Going through her things reminded me
how very alike we are and how much she loved us all. She had so many
pictures everywhere of all of us and she had lovingly saved more or
less anything we ever wrote her. She was so proud of the people we
have become and I hope I can live my life in such a way that I
continue to make her proud.
