My Beautiful Mimi

I met her for the first time just after I was born. She and Pop came to the hospital to meet me in December of 1970. She was nervous holding me at first, but we became fast friends, as she loved to spoil me and I could stare into her pretty jewelry for hours. As I grew older she and Pop would teach me how to play dominoes and all sorts of card games. If Pop ever traveled for work, I was often in tow with them. Sometimes we would have week-long sleepovers and after Pop would leave to work at Sunoco, my morning with Mimi would start with Frosted Flakes and apple juice, followed by a full day of soap operas and Hollywood Squares, only breaking between soaps for a quick bologna-lettuce-mustard sandwich, with Frito's on the side. We anxiously would wait for Pop to come home and grace us with his wit, but I really looked forward to going outside to catch a lizard with him and see how the ochre was growing.

Mimi helped me learn to count - it turns out it isn't ten, eleventeen, twelveteen, thirteen after all. lol! She taught me how to set my hair in curlers, why we should use moisturizer, and the proper way to say, "No, thank you", rather than my usual, "Thanks, but no thanks." We agreed that I should wait until Junior High to start wearing make-up and that in High School she would buy me my first pair of high heels (snakeskin was the craze and she always kept it trendy). She bought me my first Shirley Temple, first Mary Jane shoes, first bicycle, first camera, first music cassette (Michael Jackson - Thriller), and many other firsts. If you needed to know where you could find the best salted margarita in Houston, she was the gal to talk to.

She supported my various school and career endeavors and always reminded me that I could succeed at anything I chose. She never once limited or stifled me, her only desire was for me to have dreams and to enjoy the ride. If I was excited, then she was excited!

She had a wise word or a fitting quote for any occasion. She told me that if I ever have the opportunity to have children, then I should leap, because both the hardest challenges and the greatest joys she has ever experienced were from her children. She said to me, "The greatest gift in life is to love...and be loved in return." That really is all that truly matters.

I'm so honored to call Mimi my grandmother, my mentor, my inspiration, my confidant...my friend. I love you Mimi!