Katy Grunz died last July after a 13 year struggle with Alzheimer’s Disease.
She was my mother in law with all that conveys. My not being from St. Louis and not being Catholic always made Katy a little skeptical of me. However, after being married to her daughter for 31 years I think that she warmed up to me just a little.
Katy was a force!
For 25 + years Katy was a housewife, playing tennis and living a good life. Then everything went off script. Her husband, Don, died from Colon Cancer. She was alone with a handicapped son to take care of and no income. What she had was a little nest egg and an incredible determination.
She knew that she had to make that nest egg last and that she could only count on herself. She started reading everything she could on investing.
She would get Value Line from the library and read it cover to cover. She watched CNBC while ironing and boy did she ask a lot of questions.
She learned and got better and better.
She made some big bets (at one point I said they would have to change the name of Hewlett Packard to Hewlett Packard Grunz) and they usually paid off.
The cool thing about Katy was that other than her children, no one knew of her investing prowess. She drove an old Saturn (remember those) and lived very frugally. She didn’t want to brag but you could tell that she felt tremendous pride being able to take care of her family.
Watching Katy succumb to Alzheimer’s was tough on her whole family. She was always loved and will always be in our hearts.
#Alzheimer’s Awareness.
Drive for Alzheimer's 