Hey, my loves.

Tonight, I want to share with you all someone who is held very close to my heart; she’s my whole world. I introduce you to my grandmother!

Now, for those who knew me or grew up with me for that matter, all you knew was that I was raised by my grandparents. So, my grandmother was pretty much the only mother I really knew/ever had. She was this little Italian woman with bright blue-green eyes who loved to joke, cook, shop, and pretty much be my partner while watching scary movies.

Every time a new scary movie would come out, we would be the first ones in line to go watch or order it from the TV and stay home conducting our own little movie theater. We would take out all of our fuzzy blankets, make popcorn and get our drinks and candies, preparing ourselves for the jump scares that were ahead of us.

As for shopping, omggg!! This woman could shop!

Every Saturday morning, she would come into my room with her little cup of coffee and say, “Mari, time to get up. I got errands to run, let’s go.” It was the cutest thing ever and one of the best things about her; everything she did or had to get done, she would still always make sure I was included. Almost every time we would go out and find anything Paris-related, she would get it to add to my room because it was always our dream to go to Paris one day. That was one of the many promises we made to each other, and still, until this day, I am still planning on following that promise through.

But as, for the cooking part, my grandmother could never cook in peace without fighting with her husband… my grandfather. My grandfather would always come in and just bother her to the point they would both be in the kitchen going back and forth on who can cook the food better just to be left with nothing but a smile on both of their faces.

It was the sweetest thing ever to witness, the love and joy they both shared. It was beautiful.

But now let me tell you how she was and still is my biggest fan. No matter how many times I would say I couldn’t solve or understand this one problem in math, she would sit me down at the table and break it down as many times as I needed until I could do it myself. She would never allow me to think that I could never do something; I remember she use to always tell me, “Remember how you used to say when you were little that you would never know how to write your name, but one day you just did it all by yourself and now look at you. Marisia, you can do anything you want, remember that.”

And that forever meant everything to me.

No matter what, she was always there. School parties, safety patrol meetings, gymnastics meets, everything. Everything that I did was made possible because she was there. She even learned how to do my hair because having a granddaughter with an Afro-Latina type of hair texture wasn’t always easy to do, let alone being her first mixed grandbaby; it was hard. But, she made it her business to learn and maintain my hair. Every night when I was a little girl, I would sit on her lap and she would brush and then braid my hair while letting me watch my favorite cartoons. Before I would go to sleep, we would say, “I love you to the moon and back.”

That’s forever our favorite saying.

Although, those weren’t the only best parts about her. It was her overall personality; she literally was the sweetest woman you could ever meet. She always wanted to help people no matter what, and she always knew just what to say. No matter what, she always knew when you needed her, she just had a sense for those kinds of things. It was the best thing in her mind, and I love her for that.

But, as I sit here and reflect on the memories I made with her, I miss her more and more every day. She was the best grandmother/mother a girl could have and I could never thank her enough for dealing with me. I love you, grandma, you have my heart and our promise will never be broken.

Until next time, my loves.