A very tough day

Today is going to be a tough day.

While I try not to get too personal in this space, I did want to share that my grandmother's funeral is today. In fact, when this post goes live, I'll be at the service.

She passed away this past Saturday, July 1. Honestly, it was for the best at this point, as her health had deteriorated over the past year. She was 95 years old. Oh, what she must've seen!

She was a big Yankees fan. In fact, I went to her bedside last week, and she had the Yankees schedule written on a white board in her room at the hospice she was in. A fan until the very end!

She also knew how much I loved the Yankees, and this old card-collecting hobby of mine. While her standard gift for birthdays and Christmas was clothes, she surprised me two Christmases with card-related gifts. It always annoyed my sister that they got clothes and I ended up with some I liked.

I don't remember which year she got me these. There were wooden storage cases with my first named burned into them. I'm sure she saw them in one of her catalogues. While they are clunky, they are very cool, and I enjoy keeping cards in there.

The second is something that means a whole lot to me. For Christmas in 1998, she got me the Danbury Mint 1998 Yankees 22K gold team set.

I remember opening it and looking at her and just going, "Nonna..." I could tell she knew I loved it. I also knew it was expensive. I had seen the advertisements for it. The commemorative binder only had a few of the cards in it, as the rest were set to arrive in installments of three over the next few months. I always enjoyed each month when she called me and told me to stop by, as a few more had arrived.

It's something I treasure immensely.

And I'm going to miss her terribly.