Grandma Ledger 100th Birthday

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This would have been my maternal grandmother's 100th birthday. I still miss you Grandma!
Esther Minerva (Karvala) Ledger 12/4/1911 - 8/6/2002


Grateful for:

1. Voraciously inquisitive spirit
2. Her love of reading.
3. Our mutual enjoyment of the Earth's Children Series (Clan of the Cave Bear) of books by Jean M. Auel
4. Determination
5. Cooking - this is hardly a single gratitude. I spent hours with my Grandmother in her kitchen and then in my kitchen.
6. Making Christmas cookies with all of the cousins, Gram always had room at the table and in her heart, for one more
7. Many Christmas Eves spent getting a 30+ pound Turkey in the oven, I would stay with grandma on Christmas eve to help her get things ready. Often we would put up the tree as well as make stuffing and cabbage salad. 
8. Always making me feel loved
9. Her absolute unwavering acceptance of me and my friends. I remember the day I came out to my grandma, she was so not concerned.
10. Story about clothes dryers being one of the inventions that most changed the world.
11. Her fierce sense of independence, she was her own person, regardless.
12. The Goose lady of Willet - 
13. Grandma asking me on the night before she died after I got her back home from the hospital, "Can I have my glass now?" Our code for enough vodka for a couple of drinks. 
14. Her love of Andre Schwartz'sa song "Dans Vanaand Met My" even though neither of us understood it, she said she knew in her heart what it meant.
15. Grandma making pasties & meat pies.
16. Stories of  her growing up in Iron River
17. Stories of commodity rationing during WWII and using ration stamps