Saying Goodbye and Thank You: My Eulogy for Grandma

((I read the following at my grandmothers services. This is my first eulogy and was the hardest thing I ever had to write.))

"As a writer it's rare anymore that I have a writers block. If you were to ask me to write a detailed description about a sunset, I could have something decent for you in about a half hour. Ask me to write a eulogy for someone else, I may be able to give you generalizations describing how great someone was. But the strange thing is, I sit here now listening to grandmas favorite, Bob Seger searching my thoughts for the words to express the emotions behind losing someone you love, someone who was your best friend, someone you spent countless hours on the phone with for the last 10 years, someone you watched literally hundreds of movies with followed by a discussion after each one, someone you shared your music with as they shared theirs with you, someone who took an interest in your travels and photography, a person that you couldn't wait to see after cleaning toilets for $8 an hour all week spending all of your gas money in an $800 gas guzzler truck just to go see that person nearly every weekend, someone that would light up like a Christmas tree everytime they saw you or whenever you called them on the phone, someone that was worth the 2,000 mile trip across the country time and time again. Someone you love.

Truth is, I could write a book about the relationship I shared with my grandma, but a few thing's I've learned the last few years are the most important things to say about life are oftentimes the things we only say at the time of someone passing...

Live freely, Love deeply, Listen intently, Share willingly and give honestly.

Most importantly, take every single moment to embrace those you love. When you tell someone you love that you'll talk to them on Saturday, Saturday may never come.

THANK YOU grandma, for everything we have shared since the day I was born, especially in the last decade. Your unconditional love, our time spent together in Wonder Lake and Berwyn, all the countless hours of phone calls over the years and all of the laughter.

I don't know where we go after this life, who truly does? But one thing I know is I loved grandma as much as she loved me, we parted in this life as best friends, and if there is somewhere we go with pearly gates when this is all said and done, we'll be watching movies and listening to Bob Segers "Old Time Rock & Roll" there together.

One last thing, showing how amazing God's work is in our lives...

I was in Phoenix Arizona when I received the phone call of grandmas passing, I was brushing my teeth at a friends apartment in fact. About an hour later while trying to process the news, I went to a Hispanic laundromat in a poor hispanic neighborhood to save money on washing clothes. This laundromat has all of the signs posted in Spanish and the music playing is Mexican radio, also in Spanish. Not once have I ever gone there and heard a song in English, not until the day of her passing. One of her favorite songs "Don't Worry Be Happy" came on the Mexican radio in English, I took it as a sign from the Creator of the Universe, sending me a simple message. I smiled, teared up a bit and finished my laundry.

I will miss her, but in her absence I have the memories, and the opportunity to squeeze the juice out of life even more, everyday, wherever I am, with whomever I am with.

Grandma, Thank You; I Love You, and Goodbye...

Thank you God for 26 years of friendship and love with my wonderful grandmother, and thank you for all my other blessings."




-Zachary Hill 2013(C)