I've been at a loss of words, but not at a loss of thoughts and memories when I learned

that my grandmother passed away several days ago.

I thought I would try to use this microphone, use this podcast to try to find the words

to honor the woman who's responsible for much of who I am, who taught me, silly might be,

to say, but taught me how to be a man, taught me about strength, about wisdom, about compassion,

love, and that I could do anything that I set my mind to in this world, that anything

was possible, and that I of all people can do it, and not to let the world tell me otherwise.

She passed away in Moscow, Russia.

She was 91 years old, soon to be 92.

If you're listening to this, maybe the first words I can say is, at any moment, life can

end.

So tell your friends, tell your family, your loved ones, that you love them.

So I tried to write the words, I couldn't, I have some disparate notes, but I decided

to just speak about some lessons that she taught me, and I hope that it's useful to some

of you, to anyone who might be listening.

The first lesson is to be mentally strong, never to complain, and her life was one heck

of a life to test that lesson.

She was born and raised near Harcov, which is a Ukrainian city close to Russia.

In her childhood, she lived through and survived Galdamoor, which is a famine in the early

30s, 1932, 1933, that Stalin had inflicted on his own people, or millions of people have

died, one of the great atrocities of the 20th century.

To give you some context, the famine that we're talking about led to cannibalism.

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