My Grandma Zurawski didn’t get to go to college. As I remember it, she had to help pay for her brothers to attend college, one of whom became a lawyer. She used to say how much she loved numbers and I’m sure there always was a sadness that she didn’t get to do more with that. She worked for the Nickel Plate Railroad in accounting and even golfed in the mornings before work.
But when she married my grandfather, who was a doctor, she devoted the rest of her life to her family.
Early in my college experience (before I went to Ball State University where I would get my BS from), I lived with her for about ten weeks. We would continue to write and call after I moved onto Ball State until she died two-and-a-half years later, just seven months after my sister’s suicide.
Always always always, she would say to me, “Don’t get into a relationship until you get your degree.”
Those words have always echoed in my head, words that I didn’t always heed, but ultimately listened to. At the time, I had no idea there would be two graduate degrees (both from the University of New Mexico), each one icing on the cake after the bachelor’s degree.
I think of her often and I have started to wear her locket. My mom had it and I believe it’s from the 1970s– the photo of my grandparents was taken in their living room– with her initials.
I wasn’t as close to my grandfather but I think of him often as well because I’m doing some volunteer work at the University of New Mexico hospital. I took this photo from the parking garage overlooking the medical school campus where I had been to record a video introduction for something coming soon.
I grew up hearing about the hospital where he worked and my house is filled with objects that I remember from their house. While my life forges forward, I don’t forget the past– where I came from and where I always wanted to go. And what I know what she especially wanted for me.