Goodbye Grandma

.
The funeral for my gradmother was today. I was doing ok until I had to standup and speak, and instead of words coming out, all I did was bawl my eyes out for around a minute or two before I could even start.

My Grandmother.

When I was growing up I spent a lot of time with my grandparents and especially my grand mother. She was an amazing person, and I have so many great memories of our time together.

One of my favourite things to do with her when I was younger, was to go down to the bakery when she was working and try to help her out. Together we would slice bread and wrap cakes. She had the best work ethic, and even when I would speak to her later when I had “real” jobs, she would always ask me about work.. how many people we served, the number of things I had to cook..

My grandmother loved sport. Not playing it of course – I don’t think she ever did anything like that, but watching it was a huge passion of hers. Cricket, football, wrestling.. you name it she would love to watch it. When I started competing in karate competitions, she would always be the first person I would tell all my results to.
I used to joke that my trophy wall in our house was there just to impress my grandmother. My biggest desire was to be in the black belt finals at the nationals so that she could watch me compete on television.

My grandmother had a fighting spirit. She faced so much adversity in her life.. years of hard work and not much money, her fight with breast cancer, her heart problems, her golden staph infection and septicaemia, and yet she always kept fighting through them. She taught me to never give up, to just keep on fighting. And she was triumphant almost every time.

My grandmother was kind and good hearted. She was patient and tolerant.. I don’t think I ever really saw her get really upset or lose her temper.
She truly was a good person.
And I’m proud to have had Joyce O’C. as my grandmother.