Memories Of Things That They Said. And Did.

     The days are short now, and darkness and loneness collide into the pain of long and sleepless nights.  Conjuring up  younger and happier times only emphasizes the  sadness of finality. So I turn my thoughts to thinking of youth, that being the more recent memories involving the grandchildren, not here attempting to explain meaning and thought, just a description of brief moments in time, more precious for their unawareness. 

   Starting with the oldest:

Ben---For a time in his young life, he was fascinated by the Magic Tree House books. Of course when the boys  were little, I often read to them in the house just down the road, but even after Ben learned to read by himself, he would ask me to read these books to him. Somewhere in the jumble of storage, there is a phone tape of his call, "Nana, will you come down and read to me; I don't know why, but I just like you to."  

Greg---Not so long ago, but though somewhat taciturn, he did what nobody else has done in  a very long time;  he asked me, just in conversation,  what I thought about a subject brought up in the discussion of current events. 

Andrew---Dave's duties in childcare ended near the end of the school year when Andrew was almost 10 years old. That following fall, he started out by getting off the schoolbus at my house, but it soon became clear, with one or more older brothers at home after school, that he could go to his own house. However, sometimes he would choose to take the bus here, saying, "I kind of like the idea of having two homes."

Annabel---When she was about 5 years old or so, she hugged me goodbye as they were leaving one night. She came to my chair by the doorway, and as the family was bidding goodnight, the hug lasted so long that she fell asleep, partly in my lap and partly standing alongside the chair.

Madeleine---I'm now somewhat averse to having my picture taken, for obvious reasons, and am often subjected to criticism from some family members for that reluctance. This summer, it was much the same during the usual family picture. Madeleine, on her own, approached where I  was standing and said, "Nana, you're pretty."

Theo---Just tonight he said he had a message I had written to him last year, in response to the first letter he had sent to me. He wanted to read me the message, and he did so, perfectly too.

Aliceanna---She's usually quite reserved in her words and actions in this house, where she has not spent much time in her young life. Last summer, as the family was leaving, Aliceanna whispered something to her mother, which was "Can I give Nana a kiss goodbye?"

 Juliet---A few visits ago, when she was oh so much younger than four, she happened to tip our  television set forward, to the gasps of all assembled in the  room. I was sitting closest to the scene of the near-catastrophe, and she immediately flung herself into my lap and buried her face in my shoulder.