The Net Monkey

I was woken up this morning by a phone call from my mother informing me that Grandma passed away just before 6:00 AM. She was 95 years old, and my last remaining grandparent.

This is a photo I took of her back in June 2005 for her 94th birthday party at my Uncle Tom’s cabin.

Her maiden named was Laura Clark, and was born on June 15, 1911, in Clinton County, Kentucky. In 1929, at the age of 18, she came up to New Castle, Indiana, and not long thereafter met Thomas H. Counceller. They married on September 24, 1928, after just a few months of dating.

Grandma raised eight children: six boys and two girls, including my mother.

What I most admired about my grandmother was the fact that she was a very strong and independent woman. She was very opinionated and fiercely defended her family. She drove a car up into her 80s. She was a Democrat who thought Franklin Roosevelt was the best presidents of our time, while George W. Bush was one of the worst.

While she had been diagnosed with congestive heart failure around 15 years ago, she maintained a very active lifestyle, for a woman her age. Up until she broke her hip about two years ago, she was still cooking lunch every day for my uncles. She was able to take care of herself well into her 90s, which is not something many people are able to do in their late years.

Grandma outlived two husbands. My biological grandfather, Thomas Counceller, died in 1979 when I was just two years old. I have no memory of him at all. Within a few years, she met a man named Charles Ripperger (a widower ten years her senior from Brookville) and married him. We adored Grandpa Charlie, who died in September of 1999 at the age of 98.

The last time I got to see Grandma was last weekend. After the 500 Festival Parade, I went with my nephew, Jake, to see her. She was in a lot of pain and very tired, barely awake for us to talk to her. The last thing I said to her was that I loved her.

She passed at just before 6:00 AM this morning, peacefully, surrounded by loving family.