August 2025 Blog Prompt: As a child/youth, who was the greatest influence on the adult you are today and why?
Contributor of the prompt: *Cindy Rose Ferguson

The Wild Woman Who Helped Raise Me: Lessons from Grandma Red

If I had to name the single greatest influence on who I am today, it wouldn’t be a teacher, a mentor, or some inspiring figure from a book. It would be my wild, red-haired, unapologetically authentic Grandma Red.

She lived with us when I was growing up, and for several years, we even shared a bedroom. While most kids were sneaking flashlights to read under the covers, I had a front-row seat to my night-owl grandma staying up late reading books by lamp light. She was fiercely independent, creative, and had this spark, the kind that made you want to listen closer and stay up later just to soak up her stories.

Summers with her were spent in the mountains at her cabin. She fished like a pro, quilted like a pioneer, and taught me how to cook with that old-school, pinch-of-this intuition you just can’t learn from a recipe card. But more than skills, she gave me permission to be fully myself.

One day, I got bold on the school bus and called an older boy a name and may or may not have smacked him with my notebook. When he told my grandma what happened, I thought for sure she’d laugh it off. Nope. She walked me right down the street and made me apologize to him and his parents. But that moment taught me what real accountability looks like. She didn’t shame me, she guided me. That’s what true leadership does.

Grandma Red showed me that being bold and being kind aren’t opposites… they’re partners. That living authentically also means owning your impact. And now, as a coach, mom, and intentional living advocate, I carry her legacy in how I lead, love, and live.

I am her…just with better Wi-Fi. LOL!

So, if you’ve got a Grandma Red in your life, call her, hug her, thank her. And if not, maybe it’s time you become that person for someone else.  I miss my Grandma Red!