I am winding down a bit after work and getting ready to finish the biography of my Grandmother Wilda McGaha that I'll be presenting tomorrow at her funeral.  Here on the left is a snapshot of her at 38 when she was granted the position as the first female loan officer of the  "Morris Plan" company here in Long Beach. 

I hope I can do justice to her life and accomplishments.  She was such a maverick, so full of energy, strength and courage and tremendous generosity.  It is humbling to look back over her life and remember that she was only three when the great railroad strike of 1922 left her father out of work, and that when the great depression hit on its heels the ordeal sent her mother to bed with a nervous breakdown and Wilda was sent at five to live in the country with cousins.  She would not come home for two years.

She was a tomboy and an athlete, a high diver, gymnast, cheerleader and star basketball player.  But she had to leave school at 15 and lie about her age so she could attend beauty school (paid for by a well-to-do aunt and uncle) and help support her family. 

Just tonight my sister Michelle reminded me that as her grandchildren, the sibling of the "birthday" boy or girl also received a gift.  She was a prodigious gift giver and we never saw her that we didn't receive bags of change and either chocolate kisses or See's candy suckers. 

Oh the marvelous stories we have, and we know we are so fortunate to have had her in our lives so actively for so long.  She always handled the hand dealt her with amazing grace, whether it was the early death of her first husband, supporting two children and her parents on her own, or dealing with ill health.  She always stayed open to life and what it could offer, and she always had a joke to tell.  Oh how she'll be missed.