The passing of the candle.

On Wednesday, August 22, the Wahl family matriarch, Dorothy H. Bachman (Wahl) passed away. I was privileged to share her last moments here on Earth with her.

There is so much that can and has been said about Grandma, and I summed my thoughts up so that I could try to express them at her service. To make things easier, that document is here. I'm hoping to get similar documents that my sister and brother-in-law prepared as well, and maybe together we can give anyone who stumbles on this some sense of the woman that my grandmother was.

I was particularly close to Grandma, so this past few days, in fact the past couple of years during which she suffered with Alzheimer's Disease, has been difficult. When she was still able to be on her own, even in her second husband's declining health, I made excuses to visit her and Don. I'm afraid that the slightly lower prices at the commissary don't justify the trip to Ft. Myer, but being able to drop by to see them with a few groceries did.

Today we gave her a good send-off, and I know that she is with Pappy, the love of her life, who she lost back in 1976. We will miss her, but we will try to do her proud. A lot of people try to live by the catchy phrase "What would Jesus do?" and it would be hard to go wrong with that. I prefer "What would Grandma do?" because the actions would be the same, you'd just be allowed sarcasm.

Works for me.