RIP Grandma Debe

My grandmother, Norma Carlson Harrington, affectionately known as Grandma Debe, died on Sunday, May 18, 2009. My mother called her that night and didn't receive a response, something highly unusual for Grandma Debe, so she called my uncle Kevin, who hadn't heard from her recently. Eventually Uncle Mark was sent to check on her and he found her, sitting on the couch, looking like she was watching television. But she wasn't watching anything.

I'm grateful that she went without pain.

Every year on my birthday, Grandma Debe sent me a card with a dollar bill inside. The money wasn't the important thing, though -- it was the state of the money. Each bill was always, without variation, brand-new -- she had taken the time to go to the bank and ask for a fresh, newly minted dollar. She raised my mother and her four brothers on very little money and, as far as I'm concerned, she did a bang-up job. She wasn't perfect -- she was, well, a little crazy, actually. But she loved her family without reservation. When my sister came out, so many other family members had difficulty dealing with the news, but Debe didn't give a hoot.

She was a damn good hugger, too. There's not enough people in this world who can give a champion hug, and we just lost another one.

I'll miss you, Grandma.