Without you, the ground thaws...

You know, Jonathan's words can be just so profound sometimes.

Yesterday I had to do something really hard. I had to say Yizkor for my Grandmother for the first time. On Yom Kippur, we have a memorial service where we say prayers or meditate on our lost loved ones.

It was hard because it's still weird to think of her as not here with us. I wear her diamond ring, the ring that she always wore and she held my hand with thousands of times. I remember when we lost my aunt, I went in to see the casket and Grandma came with me and she was quite upset. Things like that always took her back to losing my grandfather.

It's so ironic too because she would have been totally behind my joining the Teaching Fellowship, but without the money she left me, I would not have been able to do it. So I like to think she helped me through it, somehow.

She used to drive us nuts, but in the end we knew it was because she loved us and we loved her. The world seems smaller now that I have one less person around that loves me.

But as always, life goes on. We change careers, me fall in love, we get puppies and have babies...and wonder what the reactions would be of the people who aren't here with us.