Elizabeth Palmer

From civil war, immigrating from her country, to unspeakable abuse in the home she forged her own plans on how she was going to live her life. Perhaps not all she planned worked out and she found herself in predicaments that would test her resolve time and time again.

You hear so many times at memorials "She was so loved and admired. She lit up every room she walked in to. Her gentle kindness and patience will be missed." Well that was not her. My mother was a brash, gritty woman with a fowl mouth and dark sense of humor. She had no filter and a total lack of social graces but nobody can say with an honest tongue that she was not resilient, stubborn to the bitter end and unapologetically loyal to her own set of rules.

No my mother was not an apron wearing, cookie baking mom, however even with all of her ragged edges she was a mom who loved from deep inside of her soul. She struggled to parent often repeating the patterns of her own past but make no mistake the day she became "Nana" was when the true beauty of her love showed itself.

Her grand kids and great grandkids got to know a side of her nobody else ever had. One without anger or abuse and for that I am truly grateful. I hope she has found her paradise, her peace and most of all the internal silence she so longed for in life. I pray that she is dancing and singing like the young girl full of dreams and aspirations of her youth. May she win every time at the bingo in the clouds and enjoy the finest foods and libations without worry of what they might do to her blood sugars.

You fought the good fight mom, now it's ok to rest without burden.

I love you.