you can lead a herring to water, but you have to walk really fast or he'll die.

Just a few moments ago I was sitting on my living room floor folding laundry. Dinner was delicious and the dish washer was running. My evening was starting to slow down and I was getting ready to relax. But then I was taken by a sudden flood of emotion. While I had been mindlessly watching TV the programming turned to Betty White’s 90^th Birthday Celebration.

No lies. I’m a huge Betty fan. I always have been. I got excited when I started to see all the stars that were going to be on the show. With a few more shirts left to fold I started watching….and then I started crying…soon I was sobbing. Betty White has always reminded me of my grandmother. My grandmother introduced me to two television genres that I still hold dear. The first is the quickly dying art of the day-time Soap Opera. The second was sketch comedy in the style of The Carol Burnett Show. Of course, it was the many seasons of The Golden Girls that I cherish the most. I can remember Granny letting me stay up late just to watch…often times curled up in her lap. There was no harm, right? After all I couldn’t possibly understand the humor.

This post is not able to sum up this wild mix of emotions I’ve had in the last hour. My grandmother passed away in March of 2011. Her last few years were pretty special. Her life without Granddad was tough, but you never would have known that by watching her. Even when she was living in long-term care at the hospital she was the life of the party. More than once I would get a phone call that started like this, “Did you see that? Its my favorite episode! You know, honey, the one where Rose poses for a sculpture….” We would talk and laugh, but only until the commercial break was over.

Two weeks before she passed away the whole family came to see her. With all of us gathered in her room she looked at us and said, “Oh God…am I about to die?” After that weekend…after seeing all of us and talking to each of us…she relaxed.

Thank you, Granny. Thank you for being my friend.

Cheers.