in-honour
Fri, 14 Nov 2025
| last modified Sun, 08 Mar 2026
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In honour of a precious woman and her beautiful smile.
My Grandma has passed away.
Towards the end of her life she became incredibly hard of hearing and increasingly blind, so I never truly got to share with her the worlds I inhabit and the varied puzzles I stoop over from day to day. She too did not get to fully impart the worlds that she wandered through on this glorious pilgrimage - I did have glimpses though. Her love for photography and watersports. Her fascination with newspaper puzzles. Her cheeky appreciation of a good Baileys.
I am reminded again of my terrible reliance on intellectual intimacy: there is so much more to love. So much more to love.
When it’s all stripped back I see her beaming smile impressed upon my mind. I’ve rarely seen such pure, joyful, peaceful love in a smile. Her eyes would sparkle.
I am also reminded of her outstanding generosity; her wholehearted support of my future in prayer; her consistent birthday cards full of care even as her memory began to fail her.
I’ve heard people say that love grows in absence. Perhaps in grief love overswells and becomes too much. It is love gushing across immeasurable distance. It is love filling their place at the table; their seat in the living room; their perch within the mind.
I long for the day when I see that smile shine more truly than any shadow of the present, there beside the source of all such joys.
Until there are no more goodbyes, I’ll miss you Grandma.
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