Rest in peace Grandma Alice

My Grandmother passed away on Saturday. She went peacefully thankfully and she didn't go alone.

My grandmother was a woman unlike many. She was fiercely independent and opinionated. She didn't knit or do things that were stereotypically grandmotherly. She traveled the country at the drop of a hat, putting many miles on her car and scaring her passengers and fellow commuters into religion. She used to get mad at me as whenever I rode shotgun with her I would refer to it as the 'death seat'.

Driving was not her gift, but she would argue otherwise. In fact she would debate any point given to her. She believed in a black and white world, one where Republicans were the ethical equivalent of Jesus and all Democrats secretly idolized Pol Pot. She loved the party so much she believed any rumor or conspiracy the left would rail against the right. She once told me that Richard Nixon was once forced into being given a frontal lobotomy when he visited China. My response was "how could anyone tell?" She wasn't amused.

I remember her buying me GI Joe figures and spoiling my sister and I to a great degree. In my youth she was fun and always made sure we had a good time. As I got older she decided I needed to think like her, religiously and politically. She was constantly frustrated with me not worshipping at the altar of the GOP, but she taught me to question the establishment and I took that farther than she would've wanted.

She could be difficult to get along with, but she loved us all and for that I'm very grateful. On this day I hope she's now resting in the peace she so longed for when she was alive.

"A people free to choose will always choose peace." - Ronald Reagan