I'm glad I made time to get to know my grandmother as an adult. Learning about her 99 years helped me see the world differently.

""Do you think there is a heaven?" my 99-year-old grandma, who was a devout Catholic, asked me one of the last times I saw her alive. It was June of 2019, and my mom and I had driven south to Dyersburg, TN, to visit her in the long-term care facility she had only recently been admitted to. This was a woman who had driven until she was 88 and lived independently since my grandfather died 10 years earlier at 91."

"She loved to play competitive card games and have an occasional sip of blackberry brandy as a nightcap. The fire and spunk I saw in her eyes when she sheepishly challenged me about an afterlife was a new side of her I began to see years earlier as we both grew older. I was in awe that she was both willing and able to question her faith in her tenth decade of life."

A grandmother lived to 99, retained devout Catholic practices, and routinely prayed the rosary and watched Catholic programming. She drove until age 88 and lived independently for a decade after her husband’s death at 91. In a June 2019 visit to a long-term care facility, she asked whether there is a heaven, revealing a willingness to question faith in late life. She enjoyed competitive card games and occasional blackberry brandy nightcaps, and she offered consoling advice such as 'There's no shame in being afraid,' which helped a grandchild manage anxiety. She was the daughter of Lithuanian immigrants and grew up on a farm, shaped by hardship and resilience.

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