Grandmother

I never knew how sweet being a grandmother actually was until I had grandchildren.  I didn't know God was going to put this unexpected immeasurable love in their heart for me.  It's one of life's greatest mysteries, how they instantly love us.

I am amazed by it every single day, this love I did not earn.  I don't pay their bills, or sit up nights when they are sick, or provide for any of their immediate needs but they love me with a fierceness.

My own grandmother is 88, in an old folks home, doesn't know who I am anymore, but I still send her letters and tell her about all of us, so she might remember.  I love my grandmother, spent a great deal of time and weekends at her house growing up and even at age 44 when I went to see her on my vacation I slept with her like I always have.

My most prized possessions are some black and white pictures my daddy took of she and I together when I was around seven or eight.  They are all over my house and I see her in them everyday.  

She was a good looking girl, tall, wavy auburn hair, with nothing more than some lipstick on.  I have a picture of her and her sister walking down the street holding hands.  She told me girls always held hands then and there were vendors on the street that would take your picture and sell it to you.  This particular picture was one of those.  I remember asking for a copy of it and it was hysterically funny how every house I went to that day had a copy of the photograph.  That picture has to be over sixty years old.

Now we have the digital age and I'm so thankful because I don't really have any baby pictures of my youngest son, but I have tons of pictures of everyone now.

I am a grandmother 13 times over.  They are the most interesting and fantastic people I have ever met in my entire life!  They are pleasant and easy going and there's nothing they do that upsets me, much to the displeasure of their parents at times.

I speak to them as though they are grown, I do not spank because we have an understanding and it's that you mind Nanny and that's all there is to it.  I let them do things I would have never allowed my own children to do, like riding bikes in the house, jumping on furniture and beds, going in my refrigerator for goodies.  They make me laugh, they make my heart splash on the floor and they make my life have new meaning.