Today the sun is shining.

I was reading through some old letters from my Grandma this week. She used to write often, before arthritis took her graceful cursive script away. She continued to write even when the arthritis made her print shaky and jagged, until she finally couldn’t write anymore, which at least gave us more reasons to call and send letters of our own, full of pictures and stories our churches, our children, our gardens, and our lives, all things she loved.

In her letters, Grandma would write about the various day-to-day happenings in her life. She’d give us updates on our cousins who lived in Sequim, Washington, on the other side of the country from us in Georgia. She’d send us small, black and white photographs of our parents and aunts and uncles from many years before. She’d tell us which flowers were in bloom, in her beautiful garden.

And she’d almost always send us a brief report on the weather in Sequim that day.

My grandmother passed away last week, at the age of 90, after a long and full life and a few years of declining health. And so, I sat on my bed, rereading her letters and remembering how much she loved us all.

There, in her pretty cursive, was one of her classic weather updates, but this time it hit me differently.

“Yesterday we had a hail storm. Today the sun is shining.”

I have read many matter-of-fact weather reports from Grandma over the years. But this time, the words took on a totally new meaning and I felt overcome with love and gratitude for her.

When I went through my divorce, six years ago, when my son was just three, I really worried what Grandma would think. I didn’t want to disappoint her. She was very deeply religious, in a pretty serious way. I just didn’t know how she would feel about it. Would she understand that I tried everything in my power to make the marriage work? Would she know that for my health and happiness, I had to make the hardest decision I’d ever had to make? Would she understand that by leaving, I was saving myself? Or would she feel that I had broken a solemn vow?

I had my answer on my first Valentines Day after the divorce, when I returned home from running errands, and on my front doorstep was the most beautiful vase of flowers, delivered from my Grandma in Washington, with love.

“Yesterday we had a hail storm. Today the sun is shining.”

She knew hard times in her life too. She weathered many storms. And I think she understood what I had gone through and the decision I had made, more than I could have ever imagined. She was a woman of faith, and she never lost her faith in me. And I’ll never forget that. I love you, Grandma.