tough stuff

Earlier this year, I lost my most precious grandfather to pancreatic cancer. It has been a horribly sad time in my life, enough said. His death hasn’t been something that I’ve wanted to talk about at all—but I’ve started to share memories of him with others and I guess it’s really no big surprise that it helps. Talking about the tough stuff with our friends, family, even strangers for that matter, always helps.

Throughout the last ten years of his life, my grandfather wrote an autobiography and last week I finally received my copy of it. I read all 200 pages of it in two days. A lot of what he wrote was about his career, but what I found most interesting were the chapters about his family life—his marriage to my grandmother, his relationships with my mom and her two brothers—it’s awesome to see these people that I know so well from a completely different perspective. Reading the story of his life has brought him back to life for me. I know not everyone is lucky enough to have autobiographies of the loved ones they’ve lost, but I urge you to keep their memories alive just by talking about them, thinking of stories they may have told you, advice given, fights you may have gotten into, anything! What I’m learning is that it’s not easy to do at first, but at the end of the day it helps. Death is a part of life that we all have to cope with at some point, and why else are we here together other than to help one another through the tough times?

So, maybe start here—tell me a story about someone you loved that passed away—bring a memory back to life. I’ll start! My sometimes very serious grandfather used to dance around and sing opera while cooking—it never failed to make me giggle!

xo,
Julia