My grandma lived within the boundaries of her comfort zone on a diet of coffee, donuts, goulash, and strawberry frosted mini-wheats. She loved politics, tabloid magazines, those tacky novelty toys that light up, dance, and sing songs, card games, scratch-off lottery tickets, Frank Sinatra, the Detroit Tigers, and of course, the MSU Spartans. Her favorite restaurant was Big Boy and the perfect birthday dinner for her was to have KFC take-out at the house with the family. She was never short on something to say, and within two minutes of meeting her, you’d know the names and breeds of her dogs and would be holding pictures of them in your hand. After you heard about her dogs, you’d hear about my brother and I and know what a proud grandmother she was.
She was a daughter, sister, friend, neighbor, gambler, dog lover, worrier, sports fan, mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, and great-grandmother. But to me, above all, she was just grandma.
