Por qué viajo: I am riding to honor my grandma, Pauline Powers (Prawdzik) and her legacy. She was afflicted from Alzheimer's for many years and it was painful for the entire family. My extremely kind grandma would return for fleeting moments and I would have done almost anything to have those moments last longer but then the disease would rear its ugly head and she’d forget. It was extremely hard and if I can help reduce those impacts on other families I will.
My Grandma Polly was especially important to me and I spent a lot of time with her throughout my life. She was always there for me when I needed it. In college I started a BBQ club and BBQ Pitmaster is something that is on my resume, something not many know though is that my grandma taught me to eat ribs one morning before 2nd grade when I was looking for a second breakfast. I grew up near my Grandma Polly and most days I'd walk over her house instead of going home after school. We'd play cards, eat some food (often a bowl of soup) watch Recess, then have dinner usually pork steak, potato, green beans (with onion), and a salad. A few years ago my cousin Jake came over for dinner and said eating at my house reminded him of being at Grandma's.
I miss my Grandma every day. She was the sweetest most caring and motherly person I've ever known or read about. I recently had twins and though it's hard and my family has been extremely helpful, I have missed her dearly as she was such an anchor in my life.
My favorite characteristics of my grandma is that she was extremely welcoming and made everyone feel like family, she would never let the fire die without her being around (she'd stay up with the kids long after Grandpa went to sleep, she invented FOMO), she made you feel as though you were the center of the universe and whatever was important to you was important to her (when I was 7 I was frustrated my Pokemon cards were disorganized, so she created a binder with a spot for each of the 151 so they'd always be organized). She was an incredible woman and we were an incredibly lucky family to have her as our matriarch.
¡Anímame!