Grandma

It was one year ago that I was sitting in a hotel room in Chicago with Chris and the girls, having just finished swimming with the girls in the hotel pool. We were getting ready to go to a family wedding when my cell phone rang. My phone is never charged and I rarely keep it with me if I'm with Chris and the girls. But it was charged, it rang, and I heard it. So I answered.



It was my stepdad, calling from the hospital, telling me that my mom was being rushed in for triple bypass open heart surgery. My world stopped for a moment. As he was talking, I just started throwing clothes, anything I could find, into our suitcases. I didn't care that we had just driven 8 hours from Columbus to Chicago the night before. I knew I had no option but to get in the car and drive to where my mom was, right at that moment.

That ride home was awful. Wondering if she'd make it through the surgery. Imagining what my life would be like without her. Imagining who, on this entire earth, would ever love my girls like she does. Wondering if they'd have to grow up just hearing about how much she loved them, how she doted on them....instead of getting to experience it first hand.

I would cry in fits and starts, the entire ride from Chicago to Youngstown. 12 hours of misery, wanting nothing more than to just see her face and hold her hand and remind her that she had to try really, really hard to stay with us. Because I'm 35 years old and absolutely not ready to live life without her.

She made it through and remains the best grandma ever. It's like Christmas every time she visits, which is at least twice a month.....she brings all of the girls' favorite foods, at least two new outfits a piece, and a ridiculous number of toys. She actively plays with the girls, and caters to their every request, from the moment they awake til the moment they go to sleep. And I mean this literally. She insists I wake her up if I hear the girls wake up first. She wants to be the one to 'get' to change their morning diaper, make them animal-shaped pancakes, and get their morning hugs.



I am so grateful to have had her as my mom. More grateful that my girls get to have her as a grandmother. And I pray to God that He lets her stay with us for decades to come. Being able to share my girls with her; and having the gift of seeing them through her eyes, amplifies my love for them in a way I can't explain.