Celebrating my grandmother

Just got back to Orlando after a tiring day of travelling - coming back from Jamaica after my gran's memorial service. Here's a version of the eulogy I gave there:

Today we are here to celebrate the life of Albertine Hamilton Steele, Miss Bert, Mrs. Steele, wife, mother, aunt, grandmother, great-grandmother and Christian - my grandmother. For those of us here, she was all these things and more.

She was a proud, but simple woman. She never wore make-up that I can recall, but loved getting her hair styled nicely and putting on a nice dress. I remember one weekend when Grandma showed up at our house in Kingston wearing a pink pantsuit - she looked good, and she knew she did. This is the person I like to think about, the person who makes me smile - a very sombre, serious lady most of the time, but she loved a good joke, even if the joke was at her expense. She loved surprising us, catching us off-guard, like showing up in Kingston in a stylish pantsuit when we would have sworn she would never be seen wearing pants.

Today it amazes me to contemplate the fact that Grandma was born before there was such a thing as indoor plumming, television, or microwaves. She never worked at a paying job, yet she was one of the hardest-working women I have known. Her husband Ashton, my grandfather, died leaving his 7 children from his first wife, and the 4 children they had together, my mother, Hilma, My Uncle Dorrie, my Uncle Lin and my Uncle Nal. Grandma devoted the rest of her life to this family and to dozens of other people she mothereed along the way. She never tired of giving. Over the years I have heard so many stories of her kindness to others. And although she was always busy, she would take the time to o see how you were, and be genuinely interested in your life. Heaven knows how many people have stayed at that tiny house at 13 Boundbrook Road. The children, grandchildren, cousins, neighbours, friends down on their luck. We each stayed there and learned from her example, to treat others with respect, to be kind to our neighbours, to never forget our humble beginnings, and to always strive for more.

In the last few years (I did not get to see my grandmother very much in the last 10 years) it was always such a pleasure to call her - hi Grandma/who this, Vettie?/of course grandma, what, do you have any other granddaughter calling you? - and she'd laugh and laugh and laugh and say, "my King, this is better than gold." What a way to make someone feel special - my call had a value greater than gold.

In these talks I was always amazed at her memory. Grandma was one week away from her 99th birthday when she died, yet she never seemed to forget a single detail. At school I study history, stories about peopl's lives in the past. I do this because of the years and years of me always asking "Grandma, tell me about the time when _______," and her always having those storiuees ready for me. Stories about her parents, about her brothers and sisters, especiually Lill and Jen, who she talked about all the time. Through these stories she taught me about family, about what is important, about keeping alive the memories of your loved ones. For that, and for everything else she brought to my life, I am eternally grateful. She was a remarkable woman who influenced the lives of many people over the years. It is our jobs now to live up to her standards - take in the odd stray cat or dog, the child, and be loving and supportive of each other.

Enjoy a well-deserved rest Albertine, yours was a life well lived.