At 61, I’m Yet Alive!

Repost by original author as seen on CandaceAlikeSmith.com

A Self Care & Wanderlust Journal ― Candace Aliké Smith, Founded 2015

Mental Health and Aging

Hi there. Cherise here.

Just eight months shy of reaching her 100th birthday, my grandmother made her transition from this life to her eternal rest. Months later, I still find myself saying, “She really did die.”

Not that I thought she would live forever, but I did think she would live to see the 100th birthday she very much wanted to reach. Already the oldest living relative in our family, Grandmother dealt with diabetes, beat cancer, was wheeled away from COVID at the age of ninety-eight, and maintained perfect church attendance despite a pandemic and losing her eyesight. Grandmother outlived four husbands (three exes and one current) and two of her children. Death just didn’t seem likely when it came to Grandmother.

Grandmother’s death came a year after the loss of one son and less than two months before the passing of her youngest daughter. During…

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