Sharon Avins

My wonderful grandmother. Her parents had been farmers who decided to invest in a bar. They'd been in the saloon/bar business for a while but they were not allowed to be open on Sundays, but with a special knock at the back door, the back room boasted game tables and my then 5 year old grandmother, who was short enough to fit behind the bar in the front of the building without the cops on the beat seeing her. She mixed drinks, poured the beers and shots, and brought them into the back on a tray. That was life back then. She was highly intelligent, brilliant with numbers, even though she was made to quit school at 11 years old during prohibition to 'run' the moonshine her mother made all night, having turned the kitchen of their one bedroom shack into a 'still'. Grandma drove the family car for deliveries and outran the police on many occasions. She married at 14 and had my father at 15... imagine giving birth to a 13 lb baby and having a "dry birth" because your water broke 3 days prior. He was the only child she would ever have... my father. She doted on him and especially when he was very young and had osteomyelitis. He'd been in the hospital for a year and a half and when he got out, he was her life. When my grandfather's parents were killed a just a few months after my father was born, my grandmother insisted on taking in my grandfathers 6 younger siblings (all boys) and raising them. As smart as she was with numbers, she admitted she was a backward country girl who hadn't the first notion about nutrition or taking care of anyone, let alone herself. But, somehow she did it all. Grandma was by far the best cook to this day that I have ever known. Every weekend her table was turned into a feast and it wasn't just for family, but it was for friends... men in my father's band, and some customers from the bar as well. Never saw so much food in my life. She took care of us, ran a household, helped run the bar, helped her friends, and was truly there for anyone who needed her. And, she was fun to be around. She laughed easily and was very laid back. As she aged, her health declined. She had an aneurysm in her stomach that caused her so much trouble, and due to her age, no one would fix it. Her heart was unsteady, so she had a fibrillator put in and because she was by then, painfully thin, it stuck out and bothered her. In 2001 she had a major stroke. She was still talking for a few weeks, but never made it out of the hospital and instead was moved to Hospice where she died a few days later in my arms. What stands out most... her genuine smile and how she literally took care of everyone. There was never any doubt that if you needed someone, she was there.