Christmas 1999: My Determined Grandmother and Her Quilts

The Story Behind the Christmas Photo

This is a photo of my grandmother, Florence Rubie Short Yeary, and the handmade quilt she made and gave to my family for Christmas 1999. My grandmother is 85 in this picture; I remember her always working and smiling - cooking, gardening, making quilts. 

Six months before this photo, she survived a heart attack and emergency surgery to insert a pacemaker. Shortly after this picture was taken, she lost her beloved husband of over 63 years, and later that year she fell, broke her hip, and had to have surgery, pins, and 6 months of physical therapy to relearn to walk.

My grandmother had survived a difficult childhood during the Great Depression, and many other trials in her long life, but she was always looking on the bright side and was a fighter, no matter how difficult the circumstances. 

So this picture is how I remember her when I think of her and her indomitable spirit. She remained determined and upbeat, smiling as she is in this picture, to the very end when she passed in 2003 from complications from pneumonia.

By her example I learned that attitude is the key to perseverance, to never give up, and to keep smiling.