Acknowledging our Veterans…one in particular

I want to take a moment (or blog post) to thank all the veterans out there. To those who've served our country, those who continue to, and those who lost their lives serving our country. What you do is amazing and please don't every think we don't appreciate you!

Today I learned I lost an amazing person in my life. She was 93 and lived a long, exciting life. For years after my daughter was born, I would grandmasit her a couple days a week. This would mean spending time with her, taking her to lunch, helping her shop. Keeping an eye on her as her dementia grew progressively worse and consuming.

Toshi, or Phylis as she often went by, was the the mother-in-law of my aunt. She was an American born Japanese woman, born in the early twentieth century. She would often tell me stories of her life and travels. How her mother had taught her the Japanese harp. The years she lived in Hawaii, studied hula, and the husband she lost decades ago to cancer. How she worked with the military during World War II and many years after–how much she loved our country. And sometimes she would talk of the darker stories moments of her life in a Japanese Concentration camp here in the northwest, and how her son (my uncle through marriage) was born there. But there was never any bitterness when she spoke of those times….

Phylis was a fascinating, lovely woman and it was tragic when dementia eventually ripped those stories and memories from her mind. And ultimately the recognition of her family and who I was. She wasn't my biological grandma, but I adopted her so to speak. I have no living grandparents and always adored her.

She will be deeply missed, and yet I'm so happy she's free of the prison that her body became, and can finally reunite with her husband.