My mother was an amazing woman. Born to Dutch parents whose parents immigrated from Friesland, Netherlands, she married a Baptist rising academic from lower middle class parents whose ancestry was Scottish / Welsh & she & my father decided to raise their kids Presbyterian. She never went to college but supported my dad through his academic career as a Mechanical Engineer Professor at Purdue and later Dean of Engineering at Drexel Univ. She was a stay-at-home mom. They had a son named Daniel, then couldn’t get pregnant until I came along 8 yrs. later, then had my sister 2 1/2 yrs later & a 4th child, my younger brother, 6 years after that (surprise!). When my father died at a young age and the high class academic “friends” dropped her like a hot potato, she turned to alcohol for comfort. At age 63, the age I am right now, she quit cold turkey, went thru rehab and never drank again, then became a strong support of many others in their journey to sobriety. She overcame clinical depression a few years later, when the job she worked at for 20+ yrs. closed their doors without warning. She just went in one day & found it closed up. In her 80s she loved Purdue basketball, being home with her cat, Buffy, and studying the Bible with her women-friends. She suffered from a debilitating malfunctioning heart valve and quickly became tied to her oxygen machine, walking from living room to kitchen with great difficulty. She lived to age 84. Our relationship was difficult but also strong and I still wish I could pick up the phone & call her at times.
Doctor Grandma 
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