Dear Grandma and Grandpa,

I can never thank you enough for being the center of my childhood, adolescence and early adulthood. This letter can never do the justice of the many things that you’ve done for me since I was born, however, I aspire to try.

I thank both of you for always being there for me. You both were my caretakers, since I was in a stroller. You took me to doctor’s appointments, the library and out for the occasional lunch. You took care of me when I was sick, and brought me to religion education classes, after a meal at McDonald’s. Thank you for showing me New York, the train attraction in Essex and teaching me to appreciate the importance of family. Thank you both for showing me what a couple that was truly meant to be looked like. When I think of a couple that is truly meant to be, my mind floods to images of Grandma taking care of Grandpa during his illness, and Grandpa teasing Grandma as she puts on her “warpaint” (aka makeup).

I thank you, Grandma, for buying me books instead of toys because you thought that they would be more beneficial. Thank you for picking me up from school up until I got my license, whether it’s from the halls of high school or after my college classes. Thank you for the many lunches at Acropolis, where you would get eggs because it was Friday and you didn’t believe in having meat on a Friday.

Thank you for reading every print article that I ever wrote, and telling your friends at bingo to get the latest copy at the “Hamden Journal.” Thank you for the many meals filled with golden brown crusted chicken cutlets, thank you for baking me Date Nut bread and thank you for still being the best Grandma I could have asked for. I can’t wait for you to see me graduate college, to get married and to make it

I thank you, Grandpa, for being “one of the kids,” and playing with me in the kid’s arcade at Mohegan Sun while Grandma stood guard. I thank you for the Coolatas, for the many pennies and for the many stories about your youth. I can still hear you singing “buck, buck, buck, how many fingers you got up,” and I still chuckle at the jokes that you cracked for the first 17 years of my life. I remember the real you, not the skinny man in the wheelchair at Whitney Manor who was robbed of all of memories.

Grandpa, I thank you for waiting for me in your black van everyday when school got out, for buying me notebooks that cost only a quarter and for being the best Grandpa I ever had. I thank you for being the paternal figure in my life, and even though you’ve been gone for over five years, you still watch me from up above. You had the best seat at my high school graduation, and without a doubt, will have the best one when I graduate college. Thank you for being my guardian angel, and thank you for watching me from above. I miss you, but I am glad you’re not suffering from the pain of Alzheimer’s.

Without both of you in my life, I wouldn’t be the person I am today. Thank you for teaching me to work hard for what I want. I hope I made both of you proud of me, because I am proud to call myself your granddaughter. I carry both of you, along with your memories, with me in my pocket and in my heart. They will be stories I tell to friends, and perhaps even to my own children someday. Thank you will never be enough, but I hope this letter will be a small percentage of what you both deserve.

With Love,