My Gran did eventually die last July. I heard the news over the phone, as usual, a message from my mum to ring her. I was parked up at a boatyard in Lyme Regis, had played the night before night and sat and talked and sung with people around a beach fire warming stones in the hot embers and holding them when they had cooled enough.
She was 90 years old when she went, at 4 am, while I had been on the beach alone everyone had gone home to their beds by then and I was there watching the fire and the stars before going to my bus to sleep. I did see her a few times before she went and we celebrated her last and 90th birthday, singing and getting her to dance gently playing the guitar and singing Al Jolsons' Anniversary Song. A Song based on an Old Russian folk waltz that she danced to with my Grandpa at their wedding.
My Gran was born in Russia but was brought over to East London aged nine months where she was raised. I still sing my grandma's song. The song I made up for her, 'The Wind Is Getting Stronger'. Keeping her memory alive.