Posted by
john on Wednesday, December 10, 2008 11:45:01 PM
Annabelle Kaluna'alanui Fyfe was my Grandma. She was one of a kind. Personally, I think she was the greatest human being ever. I also think I'm not alone thinking that. Here she is in the late-1930s. Born November 22, 1917, Kealakekua, Hawaii (Big Island); died December 7, 2008, San Leandro, California. This armchair historian won't have any trouble remembering those dates. 
Nor will I have any trouble remembering her in her place as one of the Greatest Generation. The wives/moms who held it together at home for four years while the dads (Grandpa) were in harm's way won the War as much as any industrialist, general, or rocket genius. How few of us alive today could imagine what that must have taken. We can never honor their memory too much.
It is as regrettable as it is inevitable that so few of them are left to help steady us as we meet today's comparatively meager challenges. Certainly she helped me face my meager challenges. Theirs was a quality of character, which seems so rare and so needed today, forged, as David Maraniss illustrated through his portrait of their contemporary Vince Lombardi, "When Pride Still Mattered". I know that Grandma exemplified this.
Here she is when I graduated from college back in '82, with Grandpa to our right. That I might have made her happy ranks among my proudest moments.
I'm not going to describe in detail just how much she means to me. I'll probably never tell anyone. Karen has an idea. Suffice it to say that my quest for a purpose in life has ended: it is to see her again when my time comes, where she is now. Grandma, Jesus, and Ronald Reagan.
Her three children, Sylvia ("mom"), Robert ("Chuggie"), and Carole can speak in more detail about her life, and I will cheerfully defer to them on that score. I could not, however, let this occasion go by without taking this small step to see that any concerned know where I stand on the subject of my Grandma.
I'm going to miss her terribly. Of course, I'm comforted knowing where she is now. Still, I'm going to miss all the links she personified: to the old Hawaii, to the Greatest Generation, to the best moments of my childhood, and so on.
I understand that Grandma's journey from the cares of this world to her Eternal Reward in the Kingdom of the Almighty was peaceful and without undue discomfort. My prayers were answered. Hers was a long life, well-lived, and she was adored by many. How lucky I am to be able to say she's my Grandma.