Grandma

Today I took Owen, Jack, Grady (and Mamau) down to the Gig Harbor hospital to visit Grandma (or Great-Grandma – depending on your generation.)

I am always so happy to visit my Grandma (though I prefer visits not be in the hospital – and I am sure she does too!) 

Grandma is the person who inspires me to help others.  When I try to schedule something, I have to find a time between the dozens of cookies she is baking for something, lunch she is making for something else, and prayer meeting for another.  Sometimes she is busier than me with my three monkeys to keep up with…  It cracks me up when she tells me she is helping with the “older women” in her church. (um, you are a septuagenarian yourself Grandma! – or is she 80 yet?  I should really know…)

My Grandma made me feel important when I felt the most unimportant in my life (junior high – yuck!!)  Often she would take me home for the weekend, and teach me sewing or baking, or just ask me a million times if I needed anything.  And while I rarely “needed” anything, it was good to know Grandma wanted to provide it, and was happy when I wanted something.  I remember that every time I came to her house, she would make the sofa (davenport, as she calls it) up into a bed, with sheets, and a blanket, and a pillow.  The sheets and blanket would be folded down at an angle, and a towel and washcloth would be laid out.  I felt like I was in a hotel!  Maybe this is a generational thing, and what every one did for company, but to me she was saying, “you are important,” even though I was only a kid.  I try to always make up the couch into a bed like that when my nieces stay the night, because I want them to feel the way I did.

I love that my kids are getting to know their Great-Grandma (and Great-Grandpa).  They both have a lot to give.  (Jack thinks the things they have to give are hand sanitizer, body lotion, personal water cups, red lipstick, and a blood pressure gauge.  And, you know, maybe that is part of it…they smile when he tries out all of these things – and tastes a few- and that way he knows he is loved, and his curiosity is accepted.)