The past, present and future...

Last Saturday, news from the other side of the world came in saying that my grandmother had passed away. My grandfather had died 2 years earlier and she was alone for that period. Of course, my mother was very distraught from the news of my grandmother's death and she immediately packed her bags and went to Iran with my two uncles, one who lives here and the other one living in Washington DC.

The three of them left right upon hearing of the death and they got together in Paris to take the final flight together. The funeral came and went and the memorials were held. Family and friends from far and wide converged on Iran. My mom told me about her high school friends whom she met for the first time since then, the cousins and aunts and uncles she hadn't seen since she was a child and the infamous funeral crasher! I won't talk about the crasher.

I write this today because my mother returned today, and I was very happy to see her again since I'm such a mommy's boy! She told me of the funeral and the memorials, and it was the most amazing thing that could be allocated to a person after they die. The life of my grandmother was celebrated more than the mourning of her passing. My mom told me about the people who met each other for the first time since they were kids and just how different the atmosphere was. The atmosphere was, of course, of mourning, but there was also hope and happiness for a life well lived.

What made me react with a bit of sadness was the fact that the house they lived in, the large and beautiful house, had been cleaned and anything that contained a memory of my grandparents were gone to one of the 8 children in the family. It was a sign that the two of them were truly gone, no more. My mom brought back some things that are pretty difficult to describe, but they contained memories of the two of them. One of the items I can describe is a letter I had written to my grandparents in Farsi when I was only 8 years old! It brought back memories, and surprise to me that I'm still able to read Farsi, even though I'm terrible when it comes to speaking the language!

There are no pictures of any coffin or body, and that's the way I would like it. I would rather remember my grandmother as the woman who, even though in a lot of pain (arthritis), was cheerful and smiling to everybody. I like to remember her as having class and being charitable to those that didn't receive any charity or government help, like the Afghan family she gave work to. Most of all, I would like to remember my grandmother as a grandmother, plain and simple. The grandmother that would spoil her grandchildren much to the chagrin of the parents and give wisdom to me, my brother and all the cousins that were around. She was always concerned about our studies and kept encouraging us to pursue until we are the best, and then strive to be better than you are currently.

Every good quality about me can be attributed to my past and what I may do in the future can be attributed to their encouraging and pushing of me to do better. High values and high hopes will always raise you to the top, just look at my family, they are all successful and some of them are the best in their fields. I hope I can emulate that for the better. Love.