They say grief comes in waves, but for me, it strikes like missing stairs in the dark. My grandmother Catherine wasn\u2019t just family; she was my best friend, my universe. She made me feel like the most precious thing in the world, enveloping me in hugs that felt like coming home. Standing beside her coffin last week, I felt untethered, like learning to breathe with only half a lung.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The funeral home\u2019s soft lighting cast gentle shadows across Grandma\u2019s peaceful face. Her silver hair was arranged just the way she always wore it, and someone had put her favorite pearl necklace around her neck.My fingers traced the smooth wood of the casket as memories flooded back. Just last month, we\u2019d been sitting in her kitchen, sharing tea and laughter while she taught me her secret sugar cookie recipe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEmerald, honey, she\u2019s watching over you now, you know,\u201d Mrs. Anderson, our next-door neighbor, placed a wrinkled hand on my shoulder. Her eyes were red-rimmed behind her glasses. \u201cYour grandmother never stopped talking about her precious grandchild.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I wiped away a stray tear. \u201cRemember how she used to make those incredible apple pies? The whole neighborhood would know it was Sunday just from the smell.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOh, those pies! She\u2019d send you over with slices for us, proud as could be. \u2018Emerald helped with this one,\u2019 she\u2019d always say. \u2018She has the perfect touch with the cinnamon.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI tried making one last week,\u201d I admitted, my voice catching. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t the same. I picked up the phone to ask her what I\u2019d done wrong, and then\u2026 the heart attack\u2026 the ambulance arrived and\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
They say grief comes in waves, but for me, it strikes like missing stairs in the dark. My grandmother Catherine wasn\u2019t just family; she was my best… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":201,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yxnews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yxnews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yxnews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yxnews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yxnews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17110"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yxnews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17111,"href":"https:\/\/yxnews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17110\/revisions\/17111"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yxnews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yxnews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yxnews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yxnews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}