Helen Olsen Mitchell

My grandmother died this morning. Age and complications of sinus cancer finally caught up with her.

Genetics are a funny thing. Inheritances: great spelling (better before the internet intruded), love of writing, tendency to track my illnesses. When Grandpa and Grandma released their joint autobiographies to the family, there was a list of the family illnesses, year by year, that Grandma kept. I... did not inherit the music, the strongest Olsen legacy for many of the grandkids, but I did get the Christiansen art talents.

Memorable birthday presents from my grandmother: my first camera. My first set of acrylic paints. A stamp collecting book. Every birthday, we'd get to sleep over, make her famous rolls, and pick out our own breakfast cereal toy. Every Christmas, she'd bake a huge batch of gingerbread cookies, and we'd come over and frost a set. One of my first reading memories is Grandma helping me get through a book of jokes in the warm sunny kitchen of my grandparents' Van Nuys home.

She was my wonderful grandmother.