Non

The second person in the inner circle to get diagnosed was Non, my rockstar grandmother who just celebrated her 90th birthday in October. She was in her 80's and was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to undergo a masectomy, but is doing awesome and could run laps around pretty much everyone (Save for Jami). She credits her long life to "clean living", but I personally think it's because she grows every vegetable she eats and walks about 5 miles a day.
Non grew up as the oldest of a zillion kids in the Great Depression. If she could have saved $12 a year, she could have gone to college to become a nurse, a statement that always left me wondering how many punches on my meal ticket cost $12 in school? She's a total survivor, and everytime I leave her in Georgia she makes me cry. I always spend Christmas with my grandmother. I live too far away from her as it is, and the only thing she ever asks of me it to see her on her birthday and Christmas, so I do what I have to in order for this to happen.
I was fortunate enough to live down the street from my grandparents as a child, so the majority of my time was spent at their house. They ran a Christmas Tree farm as well (hence the importance of Christmas in South Georgia), which was super sweet from Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve. Non has one of the most intense flower gardens you will ever see, where something is always in bloom and there are always fresh cut flowers in the house. She cooks pretty much everything in bacon fat, and pickles half of the vegetables that come from her garden. There is always a pitcher of sweet tea nearby, and a red-velvet cake ready for serving.
While raising 2 kids in south Georgia after WW2, she worked at the local shirt factory, along with every other woman in Sumter County, where she ran the local union. She broke into politics during Jimmy Carters rise from the peanut field to Atlanta, then later DC.
She lives in the same home she has for 35 years in Sumter County, with her husband Allen. She is blessed with the presence of 3 amazing grandaughters, and 0 great-grandchildren (Anna, the ball is in your court kid).