minutia press.

Today would have been my grandmother's 104th birthday. She passed away about 6 years ago, and I still miss her so much.

She's the one who gave me my first computer -- the DigiComp that sits in my office. I did not know either of my grandfathers -- one died before I was born; the other died soon thereafter -- but my mom's mom lived just 4 blocks from us most of my life.

I've noticed how easy it is for grandkids to be close to grandparents, in ways that sometimes are difficult between parents and children. My grandmother was and continues to be a very positive influence on my life. She was born in this country, as were her sisters, but her brothers were born overseas, 10 years between the batches of children, as her father worked here during those 10 years to raise the money to bring the rest of the family over. She married the man for whom I am named, whose Hebrew name rachmi-el translates as "the one upon whom G-d should have compassion".

It's a great name, and one of my favorite stories growing up was when I first went to religious school, and told my teacher that my grandmother had a picture of G-d hanging on her wall. Such a thing would be very non-Jewish, and my teacher knew my family and didn't believe what I told her. So she told my parents about this, and they had me point the picture out to them. Turns out, it was a picture of my grandfather (her husband), and she had spoken of him in such a way that I thought he was G-d.

I still have this awful urge to pick up the phone and call my grandmother, wishing I could talk even for just a few minutes with her. I'd want to tell whoever answers (surely they've reassigned her number by now) all about my grandmother and her life, and what a great person she was; how lucky the person who answers is to have such the phone number of such a wonderful person.

Welcome back! I loved reading the entry about your grandmother. What a beautiful tribute and how fortunate you were to be so close to her. I know the feeling of wanting to call, if just for a few minutes. I want to call my mother all the time, start to grab the phone and need to reminding myself she's gone. I do know I would get my father on the line if I called her number. He hasn't disconnected her line and she's been gone almost four years. I don't think he can stand the thought, so he has two phone numbers at his house for one person. Thanks for sharing your story.