On November 9th 2016 your Great Grandmother Dolores Caroline
Prindiville passed away. She was my last remaining Grandparent on this earth,
she was a matriarch in every sense of the word, and many will miss her.
Grandma lived 93 years, she was born in 1923. When she was born the use
of electricity in homes was not widespread, the second world war had not begun,
she could not vote, black people in America had almost no equality, and the
great depression was only a few short years away. She began her life only 93
years ago, and yet at the end almost everything that “was”, “is”, no longer. 93
years, most never will see that many days, that many hours. At times life
reminds me of a line for JRR Tolkien, “the young perish and the old linger”,
however, your Great Grandmother did not do much lingering.
I have come to a moment in my life that has puzzled me somewhat. I have
accomplished as much as I dreamt when I was young, and I am living a reality
that was once only a desire of my heart. I completed school, married a
beautiful woman, fathered children, traveled the world, and have a fulfilling
and challenging career. I often say that I am already too old to die young, yet
if I make it to your Great Grandmothers age I still have two lifetimes ahead of
me at the moment of this writing.
I would caution you this about time, it is easy to subtract from it,
impossible to add to it, and that the greater quantity is not indicative of a
greater quality. At some point you will begin to dictate what happens in your
life, and your path through it. You can choose to believe you are a victim of
the world and helpless in your fate, or you can decide no one other than you is
responsible for your life, and take charge of it. Every moment you spend cannot
be reclaimed, but that does not mean that all lazy days are wasted time. When
you look at something as vast as 93 years with a microscope, moments, even
months can seem mundane, but when you look at years the true nature of a life
takes form.
Your Great Grandmother endured hardships that I feel would crush people
of my time. She was raised going without comforts that we take for granted
daily. When she became a woman she married and had 8 children, when those
children were grown she gained an education as a nurse and began to care for strangers
instead of her offspring. When she had diligently saved she traveled the world,
from adventures in the Amazon rain forest, to China and a lot of places in
between. She lived many lives during her 93 years, she gave birth to what would
become generations and generations of lives, and at the end she quietly slipped
from this world, unknown to the masses, but loved by many. How will you measure
a life well lived? When you look to your Matriarch I hope you will agree she
did well.
