My Grandma Olson Would Have Loved Venice

My darling Grandma Olson would have been 114 today. Whoa. She passed away in 1993 at 93, and I've missed her every day since. She taught me how to bake pies. She taught me how to be awesome to people. She would say please and thank you for every last thing, to her last breath. She played kickball with us until she was 90. I feel like my hands are starting to look like hers - both cool and alarming...

She was adventurous and would go on road trips all the time with her even older sister-in-law across the country. She took up painting late in life, and we always joked that she was better than Grandma Moses. I took Norwegian as my language in college so that I could rap a little with my Grandma in her native tongue ... we pretty much only got to where she was from and that we were hungry or thirsty .. but she was still stoked.

Leona Olson was famous all over Wisconsin for her flowers ... person after person got up at her funeral and called her "The Flower Lady". Her garden was something to behold, and we spent hours playing in it as little kids. She somehow managed to plant a tropical hibiscus in our yard in Minnesota that still manages to survive those harsh winters, year after year. She may or may not have liked the tattoo I got of it ...

I feel a little sad that she never got to visit me in either Hawai'i or Venice, as she would have freaked out at all the flowers everywhere, all year round. She was known for sharing her flowers and produce with everyone, and as I was strolling about on the Art Block yesterday, wishing she and my Mom were with me (more on that soon), I came upon this neighborhood sharing that would have absolutely delighted my Grandma Olson ...

Love, sharing, inspiration, art, nature ... I loved that about my Grandma and I love that about Venice. Every day.