Dear Grandma,

It's my senior year of college, and life couldn't be any better. It also couldn't be any more hectic. Finals are the death of me, work is very monotonous and driving in traffic every single day is as miserable as Mummy promised it would be. That being said, I've lived a healthy and entertaining 21 years of life to this point. With each passing year, life throws more and more challenges my way, but I've done my best to step up to the plate. Of course, I have you to thank for much of this. Your daily "school sessions" you put Mikhail and I through seemed like minor activities to keep our little minds occupied, but the impact of the tight schedule you kept us on has paid great dividends in our lives.

From an educational standpoint, you gave us such important tools to ensure our success, and you repeated to us, with every chance that you got, "Whatever you do, do with your might, things done in half are never done right." We both formulated our drive toward academic success behind these very words and never looked back. Now you have one grandson who has graduated, and my time to shine will be this May.

When looking at life as a whole, your endless tales of your nursing stories still make me smile and I can probably recite them word for word. You were my first hero. In my mind, you were this super nurse and could perform miracles at will. My imagination aside, the older I got I began to appreciate your nursing stories and other parables more and more. The real substance and value within your words became clear. Your lessons were always ones describing selflessness, and how important it was to not only be honest and true to those around you but to be true to yourself as well. These lessons and principles I took from your stories help me to believe that there isn't a task in this world that I can't complete. To not reach my dreams and aspirations in life would be seen as a failure in my eyes—this is just how confident I have become. Once again, I have you to thank for that.

Grandma, I could go on and on about just how special you are and how much you have impacted me, but the truth is that what really made you so beautiful was how you shared that heart with the world. Everyone who knew you spoke only of good deeds and happy times. Never a bad report. Never a complaint. You were an angel without wings.

Grandma, you have given me so much. Your lessons, as aforementioned, are invaluable. Your heart, your desire to be kind in all situations, to be selfless and to always approach every situation with that same pulsating work ethic makes me strive to be a better version of myself every day of my life.

There is a lot more I could say. I could go on for hours if given the opportunity, but I believe my brief summation has given some insight on the amazing individual that you were.

So, Grandma, I want to thank you in a way that I never could when you were still with me in this realm. You left me when I was just a wide-eyed eight-year-old and it pains me that I could never thank you properly.

Thank you for your lessons, thank you for your love, thank you for giving me Mummy. She has been everything and more for Mikhail and I and I know that the love and care that she displays is a direct result of your angelic touch that you must've had on all those around you.

Thank you for telling me that "the heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight." As a child, I just thought you were trying to test my memory by making me recite these words but in all reality, you were giving me the blueprint for hard work in this life.

Thank you for everything Grandma. I don't know what else I can say except thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I hope that one day I can be half the person that you were and I love you and I miss you.

Until we meet again.