My grandmother, Eleanor Gertrude Shann, nee Ryan, passed away on Tuesday, one week after her 98th birthday.
She was smart: After her divorce, as a single mother she attended and graduated from Rutgers University.
She cared about those who needed some help: as a social worker for decades in Morris county, she took a human-first approach to helping families who were most vulnerable.
She loved a great story: with a memory like an elephant, she could paint a picture of a day from 30 years before, clear as a photograph.
I took the opportunity to visit her in July, and we shared some quality time together. I’ll miss her a lot.
Here’s a photo of her (center) in Ocean City, NJ – a place where she had been going every summer since her own childhood – and where I went many times when I was growing up and we would visit the family from CA.
This photo is one of many slides that I recently scanned from boxes of them which were in storage. I’m still figuring out the best way to edit these but they are a great look into that side of my family’s history.
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