Not your mother's grandmother

My 80-year-old grandmother has recently been elected mayor of her small city. She decided to run against the entrenched Democratic government on a zany Socialist-Republican platform, and she won! My grandmother is not your typical grandmother, sitting and knitting and baking while letting the rest of the world go by. Well, she does bake some amazing apple and pumpkin pies, but she makes sure she has plenty of fingers in other kinds of pies as well! My grandmother has always been outspoken, strong-willed, and ready to do the dirty work. I spent much of my growing up in her house, and she was always doing something--upholstery, running a business, wallpapering, shepherding my youth orchestra, mixing epoxy on the kitchen counter! Her mother was of similar ilk--one of the first women in this country to attend college, a Latin scholar, a school teacher in the Bronx, a strong woman who lived well into her nineties. The women in my family have followed her pioneering path of intellectual pursuit, fierce independence, and not sitting around waiting for someone else to do the job. And telling people what we think!! Now my grandmother can put these strengths to use for the good of her town. Way to go Grandmom!!!!