Grace Gibson Radford

Auntie Grace was married to my dad's older brother, Howard. She had just celebrated her 91st birthday 2 weeks ago. She died in bed in her own home. He only child, Andrew, was with her.

We did get to visit with her before she passed. She was very frail and I could tell she was not long for this world. Andy called me on Monday to give us the news. Yesterday our little family attended her funeral. Jessica and I went to the cemetery afterward.

I can remember meeting Grace for the first time when I was just a little girl of perhaps 8 or 9. It was a formal family gathering since Uncle Howard was introducing us to his future wife. She and her sister, Bea, were the guests of honor. In my childlike mind, I thought he got to pick between the two. I voiced my opinion later to my parents that I hoped he choose Grace because she had a nice face. In fact, she was a nice woman who loved to do many things, like paint, swim, play golf and travel. She was also a wonderful parent to her son. Grace only had Andy at age 40. I do remember wanting her to have a son, since I was the only girl in the family and wanted to keep it that way.

She did get to travel with my uncle a great deal since he was the treasure of the Canadian Olympic committee for many years. He always attended the summer Olympics for as long as I could remember.

She was very gregarious and had loads of friends who for the most part had predeceased her. That is the fact of living a long, long life. You witness your family and friends dying before you so when it is your time, no one is left who remembers you back in the day.