Beautiful memories, Carly - thank you for sharing.

We lived (live?) next door to my Mom who passed 4 years ago. Our two boys were 8 and 14, and she was the kind of perfect grandma they make movies about. Since my brother lives on the other side of the country, she would write loving, detailed emails to him weekly about their adventures together, along with her hopes, dreams and insights about them.

Last Christmas, my brother collected up all those emails over a 12-year period and had them bound into a book - "Memories from Grandma" that he gave to each of my boys. The book is a prized possession for each of them as they remember her in their own ways. I can't tell you how special it is to (re) watch them growing up through her eyes.

I am grateful for the time they got to spend with her, but still get misty when I think about how she would enjoy continuing to watch them grow into young men.

In one sense, those 2 books represent unfinished stories as if someone had ripped out the last chapters of a novel. However the more I reflect, I realize that the story IS finished as the narrator has moved on. The characters are still out there creating new adventures for themselves and those around them, but their new experiences will never be remembered in the same way.

I loved seeing them through her eyes.