My Grandma Evelyn was royalty to me. She wasn't just tall with an elegant Brittish accent and sophisticated from having avidly read so many books. What made her most regal to me was that she worried about the happiness and security of people throughout the world.

When I would visit my grandparents we would sit to eat dinner in the apartment that she finely decorated, and feast on food she skillfully prepared. She would ask curious questions about me that followed who my friends were, what trips we had been on and would inquire about the health and happiness of my sister, my mother, my father, and my friends. Then we would grow lost in conversation about what we should be doing to help solve difficult problems in the world. We talked about the healthcare system, homelessness, poverty, and how to acheive peace in the middle east. Wars, violence, pollution, ignorance, and inequality deeply disturbed her.

She taught by example the lesson that anyone and everyone should volunteer what they can to make the world a better place, that our job in life is to repair what we can in the broken world around us.

Now that she is gone I see in my family a legacy of caring and love and a responsibility for our world. I take great pride in the reponsibility I inherit from a grandmother and the pieces of me that through her are elegant, reponsible, caring, and deserving of admiration.

I'll always remember her strong and loving kisses when she greeted me and when she said goodbye. I always felt when she hugged me that she could crush me with the strength of her love.