Patricia Kay Gaylor

My hero is Patricia Kay Gaylor. Patricia, Pat or Patty as her friends knew her, was an excellent role model except for the fact that she smoked. She was a grandmother to me and my little brother, Justin, who was 4 months old when she died, and a mother to my mom, Laura Johnson.

My Grandma Gaylor - Christmas 1997 (I got this picture from my Grandma Uhrmacher.)

My hero taught me a lot about what I want to do and be when I grow up. She has inspired me to become a teacher. She also taught me a lot, like how to walk home when I was in the third grade. Once when I got ambushed in the third grade while I was walking home from school, she and my mom comforted me and took me to school the next day to talk to my third grade teacher. My Grandma Gaylor also used to work as a secretary for the principal at the high school.

My hero lived in some very interesting places, like Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Hastings, Nebraska, Farmington, New Mexico, Lancaster, California, and finally, right here in my hometown.

My Grandma Gaylor was born in Hastings, Nebraska. She died about the time my little brother Justin was born, and I was going into the fourth grade. Instead of a funeral, we had her cremated, which is when the doctors go in and remove all the organs that can be donated (if you wanted to be a donor of course). Then the doctors burn the body and give the ashes back to your family to do what they want to do with the ashes. My grandma wanted her ashes thrown in the Platte River, so we threw them into the river to honor her wishes. After we threw her ashes into the Platte River, we had a memorial sevice for her. We played Holes in the Floor of Heaven by Steve Warner, The Dance by Garth Brooks, and Amazing Grace on bagpipes.

My Grandma Gaylor is important to me because she took care of me from the day I was born until the time of her death. She taught me a lot that I never thought would be useful until now. My grandma taught me that I should never hit anyone unless I was hit first, and if I can run from a fight, don't egg it on. The biggest and most important lesson that my Grandma Gaylor taught me was that I should never smoke because smoking took her life from me and everyone who ever cared for her. I saw firsthand what smoking can do to people. I never want to see that happen again because, with my grandma, her organs began to fail slowly. She had trouble breathing and she was on an oxygen tank, but she still smoked. My whole family saw her go into the hospital five times and come out four.