I was reading about influential women in a magazine article commemorating the 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote. So I would like to add another influential woman to that list-my grandmother.

My grandmother may have not been a recognized figure outside her circle of family and friends, but she is recognized as an influential person in my life and as a angel on earth by me.

She was born in November, 1899 in Texas. I sometimes think of all the things that occurred in her lifetime. One that particularly has stayed with me was the fact that she couldn’t vote because she was a woman. She was married and had a child, but she wasn’t considered to have the ability to vote. I remember asking her about it one day when it dawned on me that this was true. She held her hand up in a fist and almost shouted, “Yes, we got to vote!” I almost leaned back in my chair at her response because she was so out of her usual character of being mild and quiet. How much I now appreciate what women of her era did for all American women.

Another time I asked her if she was a flapper. She said no. I also asked her about the Great Depression. She said she was very lucky because her family, who were farmers, did not have any problems during that time. I was lucky to have such a kind grandmother, who never failed to answer my myriad of questions. I know that I had to be annoying, but she never showed any impatience with me; so I kept asking questions.

My grandmother not only had an interesting life, but she had a difficult life; however, she managed to overcome the hardships. She was the third child in a family of 14 children, so she had to take care of her younger siblings while as she said “Mother was always in bed with the new baby”. She married at 18 and had 4 children, including my mother. She became a widow at age 39, so she had to sell the farm and move to Waco. Two sons fought during World War II, but fortunately both survived. During the war she worked at a bomb factory and at a bakery. I’m not sure where else she might have worked, but I do know she had to work because she was the breadwinner for herself and my mother. Because she had to work at night, she kindly took in a mother and her baby as boarders; so the mother could be there at night with my mother, who was a teenager. After the war, my grandmother remarried. I cannot even imagined the hardships and worries that she went through after my grandfather died.

I nearly always lived in the same town as my grandmother. When I was in elementary school, for a few months my mother, sister, and I lived with her and my step-grandfather. Those were special days. Because she was always there, she was a tremendous influence on me. I remember the times she was there when I was sick or upset or in need of a hug. She encouraged my sister and me to go to church with her. Some of my happiest days were spent with her. Many of my best traits are based on observing her and trying to emulate her. Oh, how I miss her! She was like a mother to me. I could go on forever about her and my love for her. Even though I am a grandmother myself, I still yearn for her and her soothing touch when I feel down. I have tried to be a grandmother like her because she was so important to me.

She lived to be 92 and she lived to see her 3 sons pass away before she died. She developed Alzheimer’s disease her last years. I realized she was having memory difficulties because as always I was asking her questions. I really wanted to know more about her past, but it was too late. Her memory had begun to fail. It was painful for all her family to see her decline in this way; but I remember her at her best, which was all my time with her.

I hope you can see that you do not have to be famous to be a good influence on others. You just have to be there when needed.