Why Grandma Almost Didn’t Attend Grandparents Day

You wouldn’t think a grandma would want to get out of Grandparents Day. But there’s more to the story.

The challenge today from BACON AND BEACH DAYS is to write about this prompt:

Think about a time that you went out of your way to help someone

That’s an easy one to write about.

Because it happened last week.

It was Grandparent’s Day at Miss S’s school. And this Grandma did not want to go.

Before you get horrified and in a huff about it, let me explain a little more. Because this Grandma loves being a Grandma and would do anything she could for her grandchildren.

Miss S isn’t a blood granddaughter. I know that. My friends know that. Miss S does not know that.

When my friends were having a child, being over 40 there were some health concerns. In the midst of the testing, they found out the baby was a little girl.

But then came a hard decision for my friends. Because hubby’s father was a ….’touchy’ man. Every time his parents visited, my friend spent the better part of the evening trying to avoid her father-in-law’s touchy-feely ways. Patting her knees under the table. Coming up behind her in the kitchen and coming in for a hug behind her. Brushing up against her breasts.

Knowing the propensity this man had for inappropriate touching of females and knowing that the child they were about to be graced with was a girl, they made the best decision they could in the interest of their daughter. They cut off ties with his parents.

They didn’t want to ever, ever have their daughter in a position of … well, enough said, and I totally applaud them for thinking of their future daughter’s safety.

So, there were no grandparents on his side of the family. And my friend’s parents had died years before.

But — a little girl can’t grow up with grandparents. I know. I had such special relationships with my four grandparents and know that the bonds are something completely different than any other family bonds. And being a grandma with five other grandchildren, I still have lots of love in my heart to share with a little girl.

When Miss S was a toddler, my friend decided to go back to school. It was my first year of trying to write full time, and my own dreams weren’t being fulfilled as fast as I’d dreamed they would. Which made for perfect timing, and I could babysit Miss S two days a week. That’s the year I truly became “Grandma”.

Miss S is now in third grade. And every year Grandma attends Grandparent’s Day at her elementary school.

But this year it was extra, extra tough.

My better half can’t walk because of nerve damage secondary from the immunotherapy for the cancer. I’m still working, thankfully only part time 15–20 hours a week, and the store is ¾ a mile from the house. Between that and three days a week for doctor’s appointments, PT, Occupational therapy, speech therapy, and other scans and tests and all the cancer associated things, this grandma/spouse/caretaker/employee/author is stretched to the max.

Right now I don’t travel more than five minutes away from the house. I need to be able to get home immediately if needed.

And the job of getting Better Half up and out to the chair in the living room where they spend their days is a about a thirty-plus-minute process every morning. Which, if I were going to attend Grandparent’s Day, would have to be done more than an hour earlier than usual.

I was not looking forward to Grandparents Day this year.

I didn’t know how I’d make it work.

I so, so, so did not want to go.

But…

…there was a little girl involved.

A little girl that only knows one grandmother.

As horrendously difficult as it was going to be to show up at the school, this day wasn’t about me. This day was about a little girl who loves her Grandma and wanted her grandmother to be there to show off to her friends.

Yes, Grandma showed up last week.

The beaming face Miss S had when she spied me coming across the room stayed plastered on her face for the whole hour as she toured me about the school and showed me off to all the friends and teachers that she met along the way.

And that’s what this season is about. It’s about Thanksgiving and being thankful. But it’s also about others and doing what we can to brighten other lives, to share, to give, to have a loving heart.

Thank you Bacon and Beach Days for this prompt where I can share this story.

Medium….meet my granddaughter, MISS S.