In our lives we have people who like us. People who enjoy our company, who enjoy doing certain activities with us or just enjoy an opportunity to chat with us. But there’s a small sub-set of people who no matter what, are always happy to see you. Now I know, a lot of you immediately thought of parents, but they don’t fit into this group. You see at some point parents have to direct and chastise you, keep you from doing something you don’t want to do, for your own good usually.

Grandparents often fall into this role, they get to spoil you, wind you up and go home. Uncle’s like me get to do that as well, most of the time. But there’s that handful of people who are just always happy to see you. Soon I’ll be doing a post about my 90 year-old friend Marv, he’s one of those people, a really amazing guy.

What’s even rarer is to have one of these people who have known you your whole life. My granny was one, no matter how shitty life was, or what she was going through, as soon as she saw me, she would break into a smile. Today I got a phone message from my mom, one of these people, her name was Martha, passed away on Monday. My earliest memories of her were when my granny worked as a custodian with her husband at the local junior high. But given she was close to my godmother, I’m quite sure she knew me from birth. In all of my nearly 59 years I never remember a time when her first reaction to me wasn’t a smile, a big hello and a hug. Our conversations were always easy and full of joy, that kindness and joy is contagious so my reaction to her was always the same.

I didn’t spend a lot of time with her ever, we would only see each other once a year or so when I visited my family in the East. But regardless of the time that had gone by, or the circumstances, there was always a smile, always joy in seeing each other.

As you get older, there are fewer and fewer of these type of people in your life and so the loss of each one is felt more and more, you will be missed, rest in peace my friend. ~ Michael