Dear Gramma,

It's been five months since you've passed away and although it was hard to accept the fact that you were gone, I was finally able to come to peace with the idea that you were no longer in pain. To be told that you had six months to a year left to live, just for that to be shortened to only a couple of weeks destroyed me.

You were my gramma, my superwoman, you were supposed to live forever. Knowing that I can no longer call you on the phone going back and forth saying "grammamamama" and "grandsonsonsonson" breaks my heart, but to know that you lived your life to the fullest extent, traveling all over the world and didn't let cancer stop you from doing what you wanted to do, puts me a little more at ease. Words can't even describe how much I love and appreciate you, gramma.

You flying from Washington to Rhode Island just to see me graduate meant the world to me. Thank you for always being so straight up with me. Always told me what I needed to hear and not what I wanted to hear. When I was screwing up in school or at home, you would call and tell me to get my act together, and whenever I excelled in something, you told me how proud you were. When things seemed to be going 100 mph, talking to you slowed it all down.

You were my anchor.

Not a day goes by that I don't put on your ring and think about our last phone call. Although you weren't able to speak, when they told you I was on the phone, your eyes shot open and you started grunting, trying to speak to me. Even with a broken heart and tears falling from my eyes, knowing that would be my last phone call with you, my last time hearing you, I still managed to smile. I was able to smile because I know that is what you would have wanted.

You raised all of your grandbabies to be as strong as you and I owed it to you to try. Gramma, I don't think you know how much you meant to me. In an ever-changing world, you were my constant. I love you more than you could ever imagine, and I only hope that I continue to make you proud as you watch over me.

I promised you in that last phone call that your traveling wasn't over and you were gonna make it to Brazil like we planned, and I plan on keeping that promise. You paved such an incredible road for me, and now it is my time to follow it. You were my hero forever and a day, and you will remain that hero until we meet again someday. Happy birthday, Gramma.

- Grandsonsonsonson