A Woman Who Had a Profound Impact on Me & the Way I Look at the World

I was very close with my grandmother. She was such a special person to me and I have very fond memories of the many times we both spent together. My grandmother's name was Sylvia Sarah Yoken.

Having grown up with adversities that sometimes made it difficult for others to accept me, my grandmother always showed me unbridled love and affection that I will never forget. In high school, I was enrolled at Grove School, a private coeducational boarding school in Madison, Connecticut. Without fail, my grandmother always came to visit me regularly when I was a student at the school, seemingly so far away from my hometown.

There is so much that my grandmother has given and taught me for which I am forever grateful. Nothing could ever compare to the love and altruism which she has always had for her family. This unique ability to make the people around her feel special is the quality for which she will always be remembered. I vividly remember staying over her house many times, spending time with her, and basking in her ability to boost my confidence whenever I felt the weight of the world on my shoulders. It was indeed a real joy for me to stay with her.

A memoir, which I have written at the beginning of this year, documents all my lucid memories of my grandmother and her influence on our family. In writing it, I felt as though I was, in a way, preserving the memory and legacy of this ineffable matriarch. The memoir parallels what has happened in real life. It is a writing journey that I undertook to rediscover who my grandmother was and how she had a profound impact on me. This particular journey helped me grow as a person and I now have a whole new outlook on the entire human experience. Writing is about rediscovering ourselves as well as rediscovering those people with whom we are very close.

When my grandmother passed away at the age of 94 last year, I was in total shock. It was like a part of me had been severed forever. To step back and put the situation in perspective, I wrote a screenplay in one week - the week right after my grandmother passed on. (The screenplay became the foundation for my memoir.) Being in such a despondent state, I decided to use my emotions constructively in writing my first original screenplay and, naturally, I found solace in my creative output.

The love I had for my deceased grandmother continues to flow (& will always flow). I will never ever underestimate her impact on me. She indeed just can never be forgotten. There was nothing she could not and did not want to do for people, but her family indubitably always came first. I have learned to coexist (& be friendly) with people from all walks of life as a reflection of and a homage to how my grandmother conducted herself. In the end, however, her most memorable quality was the love she exuded for her grandchildren.

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, "As life is action and passion, it is required of a man that he should share the passion and action of his time at the peril of being not to have lived." Sylvia Yoken lived and she lived very well. We are all, therefore, better off because of this.