A Pillar of Wisdom and Hope

My 96-year-old grandmother’s legacy

My grandmother on the balcony of her Athens apartment several decades ago.

My 96-year-old grandmother was a pillar in my life. A wealth of knowledge, despite not having completed more than a grade 12 education, she was born and raised in northern Greece. Her life took a tragic turn when she lost her husband — my grandfather — to liver cancer at the age of 62. He was the love of her life, and his death shattered her heart so irreparably that there was nothing anyone could do to put it back together again.

My grandmother and my grandfather.

In her lifetime, my grandmother survived not only a World War but also a pandemic. Despite an ocean separating us — she lived in Greece, and I in Canada — we had a close relationship, thanks to technology, until the end. Several years ago, my father bought her an iPad and laptop and taught her how to use them. She learned the language of technology remarkably fast for a woman in her late 80s!

Over the 28 years I was fortunate to have my grandmother in my life, I learned some very important lessons from her.

1. True love knows no barriers, not even the barrier of time. Maya Angelou perfectly describes this phenomenon: “Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps…