My Grandma ♥️

My grandmother passed away this weekend

And my heart is breaking over and over again 💔

She was a very special person to me.


She had just turned 99 on the 20th of November ~ and what a full & beautiful 99 years of life she lived.

We brought her flowers, balloons & cards. We drank champagne with her (her favorite). And even while she was on her death bed, she was still sipping it with us 🥂 …so you see where I get my love of it from 😘


I loved my grandma dearly.

I cherished her.

I adored her.

I looked up to her.

I feel extremely fortunate to have gotten to have a close & meaningful relationships with each of my grandparents. She was the last one to leave this earth and so I had the most time with her in my life.

I’m so grateful she got to meet my husband ❤

And my brother's wife-to-be.

That's something we didn't get to share with our other grandparents so it was extra special that we got to share it with her.

And she loved them both ☺️


I’m so grateful she got to meet one of my kitten babies.

She LOVED cats 😻😻

As in - had decorative kitten pillows, kitty dishcloths, was constantly given cat greeting cards, and Swarovski kitten sculptures took up the majority of her curio cabinet.

And despite all of the “crazy cat lady” connotations out there, she managed to pull it off in an extremely elegant and sophisticated way, as only my grandma could.


My grandmother helped give me my love of cooking & appreciation for food 👩‍🍳

She gave me one of my first cookbooks and I'll never forget the 'Princess Cake' that I loved to make, with it's raspberry filling.

Nearly every spring break through high school my mom would take the three of us down to Palm Desert to visit her. You might think a 12yo wouldn’t necessarily be stoked to spend spring break at a retirement community, but I loved it.

For one, grandma would always call us before she went grocery shopping for the week and ask us what meals we wanted her to cook. I mean, if you know me, you know this is basically a total dream offering to receive from anyone 😍 ...but especially grandma. Chicken & dumplings was my favorite of hers as a child.

We would spend the week reading books, playing card games, and I would be her sous chef.

And oh my gosh I have never seen someone read like my grandma would. I'm talking she would finish an average of 6-8 books a WEEK!

5 o’clock rang in cocktail hour and I always felt so special & grown up getting to have a little something sparkling with cheese & crackers alongside the adults 🥂

I had my first driving lessons in her golf cart…which promptly turned into joy-riding all over the golf courses (something my 18yo+ self learned wasn’t so kosher).

Every trip my mom & grandma would have a girl's night out to their favorite restaurant down there, Shame on the Moon, and my mouth would water over their tales of the delicious dishes they enjoyed and fancy martinis they drank. I'll never forget the year I was *finally* old enough to go - I was in the big leagues now!

But most of all, I got to spend the best kind of time with my grandma ~ the uninterrupted, nothing to do but just be, vacation kinda time 💗


One of my fondest culinary achievements was on one of our last trips before she moved up to the bay area to be closer to all of her children.

I'd been to culinary school by this point and was cooking more than ever. I wanted to do something special for her since she'd always cooked so lovingly for us, so I offered to make her whatever would bring her the most joy.

We landed on short ribs 😋

I spent the whole day browning each rib to perfection, preparing the base of the sauce, and slowwwwly braising the ribs.

They turned out perfectly.

I served them over freshly cooked polenta and both my mom and grandmother said they were the best short ribs they'd ever had

🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩

I mean, the compliments don't get much better than that in my world. ESPECIALLY when it's in regards to a dish someone has enjoyed hundreds of times before.

I was on top of the world 🌟

I've tried to recreate the magic of those short ribs ever since, but they have yet to turn out quite as good as those did, and I think that's okay now.


I'm so grateful for all of the time I had with my grandma.

I'm so grateful for the way we loved each other.

I'm so grateful for all of the memories that I'll carry in my heart forever and share with her great grandchildren one day.

I'm so grateful that she's been surrounded with the love of all of her children and family, especially in these last couple months.

I'm so grateful her passing was peaceful and that she had someone there holding her hand.

I'm so grateful that she was my grandma ❤️

I will love you & miss you today and everyday, Grandma Reese.

[Pictured: The O.G. Food Photo - my grandma & grandpa Reese enjoying a meal on their trip to Japan]

Throughout these past two weeks, I've been inspired to share my journey through grief publicly and in real time on my Facebook & Instagram pages.

I invite you to follow along if you desire to see how I'm using my own emotional mastery tools and the teachings I guide my clients through in a very real and universally relatable topic: grief.

And as always, if I can support you in your own life journey to having more joy, you can book a call to get started.