That's Grandma Bea's candle burning there. Grandma Bea was my mother's mother. She lived with us from the time I was five until I turned 11. She had grown up an only child, beloved by her parents and her husband. But in her fiftieth year, her parents had been gone for five years and Grandpa Chris passed away.

Grandma lived with us in the winter and we lived on the farm with her in the summer. However, a noisy brood of five kids can be a bit much, so after a few years she started going to Florida with her friend Eva for a few months each winter. Now, you have to understand that Grandma Bea once got lost driving from the farm into Lansing, a distance of oh, about nineteen miles. But somehow she and Eva made it to Florida each winter. Some people will do anything for a little peace and quiet. I smile when I see pictures of her during those Florida trips. She had the world's worst feet, but she's decked out in what I call her "boy-chasing" shoes.

Eventually she did find a boy, right around the corner from her farm. She and a widower of a close friend started going to the drive-in church Sunday nights. Eventually, they got married, and so we all got another grandpa, Grandpa Larry.

Grandma was a great touch for school fund-raisers. Several years we sold candles. When we cleaned out the farm after Grandpa Larry's death, we found a box of the candles. I burn them for a few hours in December.

I'm burning one tonight. December 16 was Grandma Bea's birthday.