Piccirillo's Anatomy

Gray's Anatomy this week was about Meredith finding a place for her mother's ashes. She was clueless for much of the show for the 'right' place to leave her rest. She eventually left them where she worked, because that made the most sense. My grandma died on Monday night, and we spent the past few days burying her in Ridgway, PA: the town she grew up in, met her husband in, got married in, and died in -- 86 years later. The would be no other place, because there had never been another place, and there could be no other town in her life.

Unlike the character, who left Meredith as the only person to make that decision, my grandma left a legacy of children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, many of whom live near that small town, but a few others that have left PA to see and experience other towns and people. Leaving this lineage, keeps her rooted in that town and in our minds, but didn't necessarily ease the decision-making process after her death.

My grandmother was a tough woman, but a smart and very faithful woman, who always made sure you were fed in her home, and always loved her family even if they weren't obviously loving her in return. Its that kind of tough Polish/Italian love that you don't realize affects you but permeates what you do and how you act. Its the kind of love that makes you not so surprised that you choose to be the diplomat in most situations, but sometimes you do become the fighter.

My aunts and uncles are experiencing that now, with a bitter feud that is nonsense in writing, but very real in their town. I hope that in the weeks that pass beyond grandma's death the tempers reduce and calm can return to their town, because grandma's legacy deserves more than that.