A Letter From Grandma

 My Grandma Joycie is absolutely the most adorable, straight out of a storybook grandmother you can imagine.  For one thing, she's short.  By age eleven, I was already  taller than her.  She's very classy and always wears stylish clothes.  When I was growing up, she baked oatmeal cookies and served popcorn and root beer at every visit.  She had fancy dishes for every holiday and exotic soaps in all her bathrooms.  She is the perfect hostess.  She entertained us all by telling stories "in her funny voice" and singing songs.  She let us girls have full access to her closet of furs, and fancy old-fashioned hats, and gaudy jewelry - the best dress-ups imaginable. She took me shopping for Easter shoes every spring and attended every single dance recital, orchestra concert, school musical, and play.  When I was really little she used to take us on picnics at the park where she'd roll down the hill, swing on the swings, and slide down the slides right along with us.  I have a few memories of her forgetting to put her feet down at the bottom of the slide and landing right on her rear end.  I just figured that's how grandma's did it.  Now that I am grown and live far away, she is still a storybook grandmother to me.  She writes me diligently with her beautiful handwriting.  She always tells me what good mother I am and gives me encouraging advice.  I am so blessed.  She sent me this excerpt of something she'd written with her last letter.  I loved reading this story.  Smiling, being friendly, getting to know people seem like such simple things but sometimes they can make the biggest difference.  My grandma has always had a talent for caring about others and taking time to really get to know them.  She smiles at complete strangers and treats everyone she meets like a good friend.  This is something I am not very good at, but that I'd really like to be. This letter tells a remarkable story about one of many people I'm sure that have been touched by her kindness.  Thank you for sharing this with me Grandma Joycie, I'll treasure it always.