The last lesson my grandmother taught me

This is the first year I didn't celebrate my birthday with my Grandmom, who was a St. Paddy's baby and loved her birthday as much as I did. I know, impossible, right?Last year we celebrated her 80th straight through June! She definitely had me beat.

This year felt really weird without her - no joint birthday dinner where she gloried in picking the meal or the place because of her elder status, no admonition to not get sick from too much rich restaurant food consumed around our birthdays, no phone call on my birthday that ended with her saying, "And you call me in two days for mine and we'll do it all again."

She passed away the week before Christmas 2012 from pancreatic cancer. I'm truly thankful that while the last year of her life was painful for her physically, it was good for her emotionally - some of the walls she kept up her whole life came down, enabling her to love and be loved more freely. Those walls kept a distance between her and a lot of people. You always knew that she loved you, but she was guarded. With her guard lowered, she was more willing to talk and connect. I made the most of the time I had left with her: we really got to know each other and explore our similarities and talk about things we never talked about before. I didn't leave anything unasked or unsaid. That wouldn't have happened otherwise. While that makes her not being here now harder than it would've been if we didn't connect like that, I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Learn a lesson: take down your walls. Let people in. You won't always know when it's too late.

There's always a silver lining, even to terminal illness. Happy birthday in Heaven, Grandmom. Cheers.

I'm dedicating this year's Relay For Life to you. I thought it was appropriate since Relay's goal is for there to be a world with more birthdays - less people dying from cancer = more birthdays. Let's do it.

Anyone local who would like to join my team, please click the link and sign up! We'd love to have you.

Happy St. Paddy's day to the rest of you. Don't drink and drive, you hear?

For us, it's Guinness roasted corned beef and cabbage round two. 

See you tomorrow for TWTW.