(Here is a link to last year’s post regarding the five-year mark of the passing of my grandmother.)

Today marks six years since my grandmother passed away. November 18, 2003 was a sad day for the Brewer family as Eva Maria Stephens (nee Schmidt), a German immigrant who would gave birth to my mother and her three siblings, passed away during a visit to a friend’s house in Longview, Washington.

This morning, I wished that Oma would have still been around to see what I’ve been able to accomplish over the past six years. She would have prayed for me through my deployment to Iraq, watched the news stories I shot for KPTV, and cheered me on as I was selected as the videographer for the Springfield News-Leader. I think she would have been overjoyed that I’ve come back to the Northwest, and I would have definitely made visiting her frequently a top priority. Then she’d be able to cheat at checkers once again and somehow jump four of my pieces from long-distance, as she frequently claimed was legal…or she’d probably win another Scrabble match by spelling an obscenity. Go figure.

Friends ask me routinely if I have any family back here in the Northwest, considering many extended relatives and my own parents and brother have all moved out of the area. I still tell them yes, however…Oma is still here. Her body has been resting at the Steele Memorial Chapel and Gardens in the Mount Solo area of Longview for the past six years, and I will visit her on Saturday.

As for Oma’s spirit and soul, I have no doubt in my mind that she is in heaven. I would believe that today, she and my older brother Joshua are talking with each other and remembering my family down here. Even through our collective hardships here in 2009, I know for a fact they are both watching over us and rooting us on until we get to meet them again some fine day.

Ich liebe dich, Oma. Ruhe in Frieden und achten Sie bitte darauf an meinen Bruder.