life's about people

i have had the priviledge of knowing 6 of my 8 great-grandparents in my lifetime which is pretty amazing. perhaps the most amazing to me was my 106-year-old granny who passed away this last thursday. as part of a project in graduate school several years ago, i got to do an interview with her which revealed all sorts of interesting things that almost no one in my family knew. for instance - my grandfather was not the first person to propose marriage to her - he was just the first she said "yes" to (i think there were either 2 or 3 proposals prior, and one during her engagement). she had a college degree which was quite progressive in my opinion for a woman in the 1920s. she admittedly dated a guy for a long time just because he was a good dancer, and she continued to date guys while she was engaged to grandpa (he was away in medical school and he gave her permission to date. crazy!) my grandma had a strong faith in God, loved kentucky fried chicken and mcdonald's french fries, and knew more about current events, the stock market, and politics than i do. oh, and she watched dr. phil. pretty hilarious. i had always hoped that she would live to see me get married or at least get to meet my future husband - she was always asking me if i was dating someone (and she warned me not to get involved with doctors that were married - she saw something about it on dr. phil). that didn't happen obviously, but i figure that she was a pretty independent woman both before and after marriage (she outlived her husband by over 20 years and didn't even receive part-time nursing care until a couple years ago), so i like to think that she would be okay with my stage of life. even though her body gave out on her, her mind was solid until her passing. oh to be so fortunate... she was a gift.

question for this week (feel free to answer the other questions as well - i'm not giving up folks!): who has been a person that has inspired you?