It's a Gift

Love is a gift, not a reward.

Hardly a day goes by that my maternal grandmother doesn’t come to mind. She’s been gone a while now. And yet I clearly remember coming home one night from a philosophy lecture to hear the news that she had died unexpectedly. I slumped in a chair and stared into space for a long time.

Marie was her name. She stood about five feet tall and wore her long wh…