Betty Doran: Sassin' it Up In Heaven

My grandmother died on Saturday. She had been ill for a while but it was still a bit of a shock. She outlived every one of her siblings, her husband, and her youngest child; and though she was convinced she would die in her fifties, she kept right on trucking until she passed away at the age of 91.

Though we are all quite sad in her wake there is a great sense of relief. She's been living in a nursing home for the past four years and Alzhiemers has been steadily claiming her memories for the last five. Alzhiemer's is old age's cruelest joke - you get within walking distance of a century only to lose everything that has brought you there - but in spite of the memories she continued to lose, my grandmother's wit and sass only got stronger. Up into her last days she was flirting with male doctors, winking like a sneak, and casting her award winning stink-eye at unlucky victims.

I know she is at peace now, and probably giving Jesus a little sass.