From her own perspective of having lived a happy and enriched life but "nothing remarkable," my grandmother, Lorraine Rey Isaacs Hofeller, my "Meme," lived a full 106 and a half magical years through three centuries, experienced two world wars and countless other wars, lived through the Great Depression, positioned herself as a trailblazer long before women were considered leaders-and is remembered as the last survivor of the 1900 storm in Galveston, Texas.

Her remarkable life story, as seen through her violet eyes, and interpreted by me-her youngest grandchild, her namesake, Laurie Kuper Bricker--is a collection of tales of wonderment as Lorraine embraced each day of her life from February of 1896 through July of 2002.

Her incredible engagement ring, mailed to her from Buffalo, New York, by Sigmar Hofeller in 1918, accompanied her through the journey of youth to old age and beyond.

More than anecdotal, the chapters refresh and revise what life was like in a "simpler time." Maybe it was simpler as generations to follow look back, but it was not so simple then!