Indestructible

“Life is short”

This expression has always struck me as an overused cliché. Life isn’t that short. For most people, life is long and can be incredibly fruitful, filled with road trips, weekends at camp with your friends and family, and trying to understand the human condition while finding the beauty in your day-to-day grind to make ends meet. However, life, and its circumstances can change very quickly and it is in these moments that it seems awfully short. It is in these moments that one is forced to come to grips with how precious each day is. One is forced to appreciate and cherish each morning their husband pours their coffee, watching the morning news with a loved one, driving to work, doing laundry, making dinner, and setting the alarm to wake up early enough to do it all again the next day.

My grandmother, or Nanna if you will, has always stuck me as a sturdy rock. We used to listen to Van Zant in the car together. I’d listen to her sing “Help somebody” and the lyrics would always ring so true to me. “Granny said sonny stick to you guns if you believe in something no matter what.”, “She was five feet, of concrete~ She’ll cold stare you down, stand her ground, still kicking and screaming at 93”. Nanna has always been that to me. Five feet on concrete, a steady constant. Her rough, callused hands from working too hard, always being a metaphor for her character. There has never been anything that she wasn’t strong enough for. No task too tall for this barely five foot tall woman. She’s the strongest person I’ve ever known.

And last week she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Nanna doesn’t get sick, she doesn’t have time for it. She’s always been too busy being the stronger person, shouldering the burden of her own problems never becoming an excuse to not take care of someone else. She’s the classic person who’d give you the shirt off of her back, always doing what she could to help somebody, if she could. Maybe that’s why the Van Zant song has always rang so true with me.

So now, the strongest person that I know is sick. Now she has to be strong for herself for perhaps the first time in her life. It’s an awaking realization, a reminder to how precious life can be. There has never been something that my Nanna wasn’t strong enough for, nothing she couldn’t work hard enough to overcome. But this time it’s not in her hands. This time we have to rely on prayer, or faith, or karma, or whatever it is that you do or don’t believe in that says, “prepare for the worst, and hope for the best”, a phrase my Papa has told me just about every time that I see him.

Whatever will be, will be. Remember to cherish your friends and loved ones. Try to enjoy your 10 minute drive to work. Stick to your guns if you believe in something. Tell your Nanna you love her. And Help Somebody, if you can.

I love you Nanna.