Roseto in Real Life

The message in Malcolm Gladwell's story, Outliers is apparent in the lives of my two grandmas. In the story, Gladwell stresses that people are greatly influenced by the world around them and their interactions with friends, family, and the community. My grandma on my mom's side is over 80 years old and lives a happy life in Arizona with her husband of over 60 years, son, and grandchildren. She has three children who grew up to be successful doctors and lawyers. They all blessed her with grandkids and kept her very close to their families through out the years. She is the type of grandma who bakes cookies when she knows my sister and I are visiting her, and never forgets anyone's birthday. She is always in a cheerful mood and has a positive attitude towards everything. She used to smoke cigarettes for over 20 years, but is now perfectly healthy and very happy. In contrast, my grandma on my dad's side passed away a few years ago. She had several husbands, gambled all of her money away, and never seemed to be happy with herself. She had three kids as well, but her 50 year old daughter lived with her for the last few years of her life and her husband was unemployed. They moved several times into small, dirty apartments, and my dad and aunt constantly had to clean up the apartment and buy her groceries. She was always miserable and didn't take care of herself.
I believe that the message conveyed in Outliers is very similar to both of these situations. My mom's mom was always happy because she was surrounded by people she loved and resided in a healthy, warm environment. While my dad's mom was never happy towards the end of her life because of the unfavorable conditions and environment that surrounded her. The town of Roseto in Outliers shows that people's lives are effected by their surrounding environment and their tightness with the community.