LAURA WAITE: 1920 - 2013
On Saturday evening, my wonderful English grandma Laura passed away. I mentioned her in "Home Keeps Moving" when discussing the unique relationships TCKs form to adopted grandparents. She always felt like my blood-grandma since she was there right from the beginning and was ever-present in my life. Laura used to spend the weekends with us when I was little and take the 4am play-shift with my eldest brother Samuel so my parents could catch up on sleep. She cared for all three of us Sand kids like we were her own and taught us so much about English culture. Laura was ever-present in my life since birth, writing letters to me in India and sharing phone calls and visits in the UK. She did all the things grannies do and showered me with nothing but love and laughter.
She had a major stroke just before Christmas and managed to hang on for more than two weeks despite getting pneumonia and then kidney failure. This is testament of one of the strongest women I know...a complete fighter despite all the hardships life threw her way. I managed to go up to Nottingham and see her three days before she passed away and the first thing she did was ask how my family was despite being in excruciating pain. That is Laura.
As with everything in TCK life though, the complexities are great. She means the world to me and my family yet we aren't close to her immediate family so it will feel strange at the funeral being surrounded by people who don't know me or how much she meant to my family. My parents are in India at the moment and Ben in South America which makes it feel even more isolating during this time of grieving.
Still, this is the time to acknowledge what a privilege it was to have such an extraordinary woman in my life, to have shared life with her and to call her my grandma. May you rest in peace, you mean the world to me.
