Grandma: Her stories, Her words

This winter, I decided last minute to trek to Aunt Dede's house after work to visit Grandma before the holiday season took me away. I didn't want to show up empty handed so instead I stopped by the my work's hospital gift shop, they really do stock the nicest seasonal gifts. I picked out a pair of grey knitted fingerless gloves for her and a book caught my interest, Grandma Her stories, Her words. Perfect I thought, she's very literary and maybe she would enjoy prompts to write about her world and her memories and then maybe even her current thoughts, so i also grabbed a blank moleskin notebook. Little did I know the gift was really not a gift for her but more of a gift for me ... you may think well duh but really i thought it would be a journal she would occasionally get to and ultimately become a treasure for the family. But no later than 3 months time passed before I received a package in the mail from Grandma, containing both the moleskin (blank - she does not like writing in blank books which i should have known because neither do i) and the Her stories, Her words. Not only did she fill out the book front to back, she filled it out addressing it to me ... which was definitely not how i imagined her writing or returning the gift but how could i not feel grateful in her response. I want to share her words; as factual as they may seem, they are priceless, to be enjoyed not just by me but by all of her children and grandchildren. so enough of my rambling, here is the first entry:

Grandma's Full Name: Margaret Mary Byrne
Date of Birth: Sept 6 - 1926
Place of Birth: Portland, Oregon

Grandma's Mother's Full Name: Claire Mariah Sarsfield
Date of Birth: Aug 31 - 1896
Place of Birth: San Francisco, Calif. 

Grandma's Father's Full Name: John Joseph Sarsfield
Date of Birth: Oct. 17 - 1894
Place of Birth: Centerville, Wash.

Grandma, what do you know about the origins of your maiden name?
What nationality or culture is it associated with?
My name - Sarsfield - is Irish. My grandfather Anthony Sarsfield came from Ireland - Co. Mayo - my grandmother also Irish came from an Irish County near Co. Mayo. My grandfather and grandmother 'home steaded' near Goldendale, Wa. I little asked my Dad about his family - they did not talk about their past - maybe it was too sad for them to recall their early lives.

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What sort of questions does this raise for you and what does this make you think about? What do you want to know more about? What has she shared with you on this topic? 

For me, the first thing that comes to mind is, how did her mother and father meet? Also, for a long time I always assumed that life was miserable in Ireland and so families emigrated and didn't want to talk about the sad conditions left behind but now I've come to think that life in Ireland was loved in so many ways and the fact that they had to leave behind all that they loved is very heartbreaking.