Stella Godek Arnold

My Grammers was a very lively woman. That is how I will always remember her. When I was little she would always be ready to go, determined to try something new or to have another adventure. Once we met her at the LA airport during her layover to Australia. At the time I was thinking, "You do realise that Australia is VERY far away?" But Grandma didn't care, it was another place to see, to experience.
My Grandma danced through life that way, sometimes literally. I recall her once telling me, while trying to teach me to ballroom dance in my Dad's kitchen, that she had many different dance partners at her club and that was how she liked it. If one person was better at one dance than the others she would choose to dance with him, and too bad for the other guys. She valued her toes too much!
That is just the way she was. Not afraid of expressing herself or her opinions. Often she expressed these opinions in a very determined way that some people couldn't understand, but ultimately, we all know she did it from a place of love. Where Jenny and I were concerned, she was the best Grandma anyone could ever have. She cooked fresh Polish food for us, taught us to dance, took us to the beach, let us experience all sorts of things with her, and defended us when she felt we needed defending.
She was always my advocate when I needed my father to understand a girl's point of view. For example, I remember her saying one time, yes Richie, your daughter needs to spend that much on a prom dress for her senior year. Leave it to Grammers to understand what a pretty dress does for a girl!
Memories come flooding back to me as I think of all the times I was lucky enough to spend with Stella. The last time I really spent time with her alone was when I had the chicken pox at 19. She nursed me back to health, banging around in the kitchen to make me homemade chicken soup and fresh strawberry jam. During that time she told me tons of stories about my Grandpa Buddy, cheering me up with his antics, even though I felt miserable.
Through her I first learned what a crazy and zany grandpa I had. She really loved him, despite how exasperated she seemed to get with him, she always had a smile on her face, and a glint of laughter in her eye as she told his stories.
She would always giggle when she saw Jenny or I because she was so excited to see us. I remember her dog Cleo and the way she would talk to her as if she were a very good friend. I remember how she loved cardinals because they were such pretty, cheerful looking birds. Stella was a very proud, independent and determined woman. Some people saw it as stubborn, but hey, she married an Arnold, and knowing them and that stubborn streak of theirs, she needed to be able to keep up.
Lastly, and I think this memory sums up best what Stella represented to me. My favorite memory of her is when Jenny and I were very young, staying with her one summer in Rhode Island. One day she told us to get our suits on and get ready to go to the beach. As we were getting ready, Jenny and I heard a bouncing sound. Anxious to find the source Jenny and I ran into our Grandma's room. And there Stella was, bouncing up and down on the bed, looking at herself in her large mirror to see how she looked in her swimsuit. That is how I will remember her best, full of life, ready for what the world had to offer, already onto her next great adventure. Go for it Grammers, you will always be in my heart.