For Grannie

Well, it’s been some time since my last entry – two weeks in fact. And what a ride it has been – so much has happened, so much has changed in such a short time. 

Last Monday, 12th of October I had a call from New Zealand to say my grandmother had passed away. You can never quite prepare yourself for the actual event of someone’s passing, regardless of the circumstances and no matter how imminent. Those phone calls are what every traveller dreads, but are an unfortunate by-product of life, travel and our own mortality. All you can do is hope the calls don’t come, and hope that when they do you have the strength to deal with them on your own!

In a way, it was a blessing for my grandmother as she has not been in the best of health and had all but made the decision to move on. Stubbornness runs in the family, and I have nothing but respect and admiration for her decision. I loved my grandmother very very much, and feel so fortunate to have had her in my life for this long – I can only hope to do her proud in following in her footsteps as a teacher (I suspect she was eminently more patient than I am, and I daresay more ladylike)!  I will certainly do my best.

I was thinking about her the other day, and remembered a toast she used to say at family gatherings. Given it has been thanksgiving recently here in Korea and I have been teaching my adult students about toasts, I included it in my lesson for them. I felt it was quite befitting as one of them had just become a grandmother for the first time, and in a way it was also my own sort of (private) tribute to Grannie. So...

Here’s a health to all those that we love
Here’s a health to all those that love us
Here’s a health to all those that love them
That love those
That love them
That love those
That love us