Courage.

    The Girl with a Pearl Earring has been an incredibly easy story for me to relate to. Griet, a sixteen-year-old girl from seventeenth century Holland (the Netherlands) discovers that her father is injured and cannot work. Griet finds herself having to be sent off to work as a maid for a wealthy Catholic family across town to keep her family afloat.

     Griet’s “sticky situation” hits home for me. This summer, could not have been any worse for my family. My grandma decided to stop the gruesome chemotherapy treatments for her ovarian cancer. Eventually, she was unable to take care of herself without constant assistance. She came to live with my family and me in late June. Each day was worse than the day before. My grandma grew weaker and weaker each day. She didn’t have to tell us, we knew she was tired. Tired of being so painfully weak.  Tired of the pain. Tired of suffering. But she never gave up; she was so determined to live life. As stoic as my grandma was, we could still tell that she was afraid. She was afraid we had given up on her. Never. Her last month with my family and I was incredible. She was able to see my cousin Meredith graduate from South Side High School in June, we watched “The King’s Speech” together, strolled around the block at night, and picked blueberries. Being able to spend so much time with her was an absolute blast. The time came and we all knew she wasn’t far from the end. My grandma passed away at Hospice Home in late July. Each day is a challenge for me, but it brings me so much relief that she isn’t suffering or in pain anymore. It is so hard having to do things for the first time without her. My grandma wasn’t just an ordinary grandma; she was so head strong and had a big heart. My grandpa died of a heart attack in 1964 when my mom was only three years old. This left my grandma alone to raise three young children under the age of 12 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She kept her wits and got through it. I admired her incredible strength and courage. My grandma later remarried my step grandfather in 1971. They were the most incredible people to ever live on this planet. They traveled to Guatemala and Mexico several times on mission trips to help the poor; and delivered food to the poor in Fort Wayne for over 25 years. I was fortunate enough to live only a mile down the road from them growing up, and spent almost every day with them. When they died, it was incredibly difficult having to hold back that pain of losing my grandma and grandpa. In the story Griet has to adjust to her new life by making an ultimate sacrifice for her family. Griet was homesick and missed her family terribly at first. But Griet found ways to remember them when she was away. Like Griet, I found ways to remember my grandparents. To this day, I have my grandma’s name written on my wrist with a big heart around it. I did this because the nurse who took care of my grandma told me to write her on my heart because she touched the hearts of so many people during her life.

     Later on in the story, Griet realized that she was doing the right thing for her family and herself by working as a maid. Like Griet, I learned this summer that making sacrifices for family is a part of life, and that it pays off in the end. Money cannot buy family, because family is priceless.