My grandmother was born just after the turn of the century. She grew up with no piped water, no electricity, and no cars. She grew up during the Great depression. She and her sister each had a school dress and a Sunday dress. They would share dresses so they weren't wearing the same thing every single day.

She got married to a man I believe she thought she loved. They eloped and her brothers found out through a newspaper article that listed all of the weddings in the county. They were going to go beat him up for lying about their sister. Needless to say it wasn't a lie.

As was the case with most women in that era, there was no birth control and she had four children. She didn't want more children; she was happy with two but my grandfather didn't have a son.

She was widowed in the 1960s with three children at home and my mom in college. At my grandfather's death she had never driven a car, never held a job outside the house, never had a bank account. All she had was a high school diploma. After his death, she went to work in the small hospital in her hometown and retired as their administrator. Never having remarried or even dated.

A lot of my friends don't understand why I looked up to her so much. She taught me that you didn't have to have a man and if you did you damned well better be able to take care of yourself in case things didn't work out.

In recent years and going through my uncle's estate, we have found that my grandfather was incredibly unfaithful and I have or rather had four additional uncles. I have to wonder how my grandmother dealt with that since all of them were in the same small town.

Men don't change. But women continually rise to meet the challenges of their lives and remake themselves again and again.

GG lived to be 105.