(November 18, 1925 - September 30, 1995)
Velma Bennett Moss was my maternal grandmother. She was an amazing woman who battled illness but never let if define her. She was loved by her family and friends.
She worked for NASA. Yes, how awesome is that? I thought everyone's grandmother had an awesome job like that when I was a kid. As a web engineer, I am so proud that my grandmother was involved, at any level, with the space program. Her job was head of the typing pool and secretary to some of the higher ups on base. Based on what she told me, that job would now be an executive assistant. And the typing pool was actually highly trained technical writers that had to transcribe engineer scribble into technical documentation. Anyone that has had to ever write documentation for a software project knows that it is no easy task.
She could tell a person off, smiling the whole time and have them feel good about it when it was over. You were happy this woman just put you in your place. She was strong and confident. She worked for a living in a time when most women did not. And she was not ashamed of it.
She battled rheumatoid arthritis late in life. However, it did not stop her. She attended classes to further her knowledge and career while in great pain. She took her grandchildren to Opryland, a now closed amusement park in Nashville TN, every year during our childhood. She hopped on her electric scooter and went on her way.
I am fortunate enough to have some of the things she wrote in her life. She loved to write. I can still hear her IBM Selectric type writer in the background of my childhood. She made a book for the family of her writings and pictures. Boy, what could she have done with the Internet? I have spoken with my mother, her youngest daughter, and we have agreed that if she had been alive today, she would have put many of her writings on the Internet. So, I am going to start working on transcribing them here.
The Importance of "WHY"
