Grandma

Guess what? I have two pieces of awesome news. My blog has surpassed 1000 views (yes, 500 of those are spambots, but I’m okay with that), and I just finished my second draft of Chaos Rules! Hooray!!! In celebration I’ve decided to write about someone awesome. My grandma.


If there is one person besides my parents who have made a permanent and lasting impact on me it’s my Grandma Nessl. I went to visit her recently and it reminded me of how despite the 60+ year age difference she’s still one of my best friends.

The picture is from a visit a few years ago over Thanksgiving. We got to eat at her retirement community, which was sad because it wasn’t a homemade extravaganza and happy because I didn’t have to cook.

I was trying to think of something specific that she’s taught me and the big thing that pops up is Faith. It’s funny because we’re from two different religions and she has taught me so much about faith. She practices Sidda Yoga, a new agey sort of religion that’s tangentially Hindu. She found it back in the 70’s and never looked back. I think it was her own unusual choice that made her so respectful of my father’s conversion to the LDS church. All I know was that I grew up admiring her staunch beliefs and willingness to sacrifice for them even if they weren’t ones I shared. Her every day commitment to her faith seeded in me a desire to have the same for myself.

More then that I always knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she loved me. Sometimes I’m selfish or difficult but she always forgives me. She turned 89 recently. It’s been a long life that she lived to the fullest. When people say that my generation has no hero’s for me that never true. My grandma will always be a hero to me.