I had a dream once where I saw her in the snow, wandering...lost. Nothing but a white horizon between my grandmother and myself, yet I had no fear of cold or being lost, nor the black cliffs that rose around us. But it wasn't like Myrtle to be lost. Rather, she had begun a journey, fully intent on reaching her destination, even if she didn't quite know the way. Granny had always been strong like that...persistent..stubborn even, just like her children and grandchildren. She was never lost as long as she knew where she was going.

Through the new-fallen snow, I found her, lifting her in my arms like her form was nothing. Despite the frail frame I expected, I held her eyes in mine and she gave me that smile she'd always had, not dulled by suffering or disease, but vibrant and cheerful....as if she was laughing at me for interfering. "Oh Angela, why are you wandering around here?" I could almost hear her saying that in my head. We walked, smile in hand, together to a room where she stayed. The room in the nursing home she'd belonged to for so long and had been trying to escape for 10 years since. I knew I was helping her back to that same place. She wasn't ready to die, it had been my duty to bring her back.

Myrtle didn't hate me though, she just looked up and continued smiling, not a care in the world even though I'd put her back in that same god-forsaken bare room.

Granny Myrtle almost died three times near the end, but somehow, she fought her way back, almost as if her mind didn't know it wanted to live, but her body did. I'd like to think when she died, someone finally took her hand and led her to that paradise past this cold world, to the Garden she always used to sing about. This is my tribute to Granny Myrtle, my inspiration, my beloved grandmother and friend. I know you've found that path to paradise and I can only pray to walk it as happily as you did.