Nijole is one of those people that won't linger in my life. Not like family or the friends I run into. she's the kind of person that, thought I probably won't see her after June, if I did, she would run up, give me a powerful hug, and talk as if no time had passed. And when I don't see her, and time does pass, I might not actually believe she existed. She's a 58 year old Lithuanian woman who came to take care of my grandparents as they lived their last couple years. She wore bright, bold colors (and fashions), and regardless of how much she stands out, she never seems embarrassed. She's eccentric and eclectic, and I'm not sure whether it's because she is from Lithuania or because it's just who she is.
She came here, cared for and loved my grandparents, and now is walking away. I would almost think she came from nowhere except for the fact that she showed me pictures of of her hometown (mostly towns I'd never heard of).
She walked around with my grandpa at my wedding, and people thought that she was my grandmother. But if they knew her a little they would know that she is entirely too confident and boisterous to by MY grandmother. My mom's, maybe.
I can't imagine what it was like being her - caring for two dying people by herself in an unfamiliar city using a language she barely knew. But she learned how to communicate, to adapt, to love, and she did so well - even if we thought it was the wrong way sometimes.
In many ways I'll miss her - the same way I miss my mom a lot of times. She's one of those eternally optimistic people. Not in a fake way...in way that has confidence in life, that refuses to be held down by fear. They're the kind of people you want to be stuck on a deserted island with. Not necessarily because they have the MOST common sense and / or cleverness (although both of these women have both of those things), but because they both have so much strength and joy that there's no way they would give up until you got off the island.
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