2020 Hindsight: Grandmom's Smile

4/5/2020 is the 106th anniversary of the birth of my mother's mother, Ann Splaver Bechtel.  I woke on the morning of the 96th day of 2020 and checked my phone and saw my mom's amazing pictures on FB in honor of her.  Grandmom Bechtel had a large part in my childhood. We visited often, and I will never forget how she was always smiling.  Her food was great, her laugh was infectious, she liked air conditioning just as much as I do (maybe even more).  But her smile is what will always be burned into my mind.  Her smile not only showed her positivity, but it also always conveyed her love for her family and friends.  Even when visiting her in the hospital, after a surgery, I remember coming into her room where she was reading the Sports Page.  As I entered the room, I asked her how she thought the Phillies were going to do this year (it was the Baseball Preview issue of The Inquirer).  She looked up, with a wide smile, and said "The Phillies??  They're a buncha bums!"  All the nervousness I had about visiting a family member in the hospital, post-surgery, immediately evaporated.  See, Grandmom knew the power of her smile and its ability to make everyone around her feel better.  My 2020 Hindsight is Grandmom's smile.  I may no longer see her in the first person, but her smile I will carry with me (and try to emulate) for the rest of my life.  In these crazy times, it's easy to feel helpless and an inability to make things better.  But we can all smile, at people we know and even people we don't.  The power of the smile should not be forgotten!