3:30 a.m.....it's raining some outside and I can see the street light shining through the blinds of my living room window. It makes the raindrops on the glass appear to "glow". Here I sit under a blanket drinking a glass of chocolate milk. This blanket was my grandmother's. She had it while she was still in the nursing home and she covered up with it every day. It was given to me after she went to Heaven. My grandmother was the single most important person in my life. She raised me, she spoiled me, she loved me unconditionally. I let her down often, I'm sure, but I never once remember her being angry with me. She was the one person in my life that I could count on to be there no matter what. I feel her with me every second of every day.
Tonight, I am taken back to a time when I was little. There were nights that she would stay up so that I could lay my head in her lap. She would run her hands thru my hair until I fell asleep. Some nights, no matter the season, we would sing Christmas carols until I fell asleep. Frosty the snowman, jingle bells and winter wonderland were my favorites. I remember looking out the window before drifting off some nights. The security light in the yard shined it's orange light through the window, casting a soft glow in the living room. Some nights, like tonight, it would rain and I would watch the rain drops race down the window.
The back door was windows, top to bottom, and the moonlight would shine inside. In the mornings the sun was so beautiful as it lit up the house. We lived deep in South Alabama, huge trees with Spanish Moss in the front yard would be lit up and turned to a beautiful silhouette in the evenings as the sun went down. The bull frogs sang to us at night out by the big pond.
I spent all my days outside under the huge oak trees or climbing to the top of the popcorn trees. I can't tell you how many times I fell out of the tree beside the porch. She wished I was more careful. Before they planted the pines, we had cattle. Every afternoon I would ride on back of the old flatbed truck while my grandfather drove on the farm to go feed the cows. I was the designated gate opener. He'd let me feed them out of my hands....he'd let me get away with anything. My pawpaw was the strongest man I ever knew. He loved his family, he was in church every single Sunday and I have never seen a man that worked as hard as he did. He was the veterinarian in our small town and loved by all that knew him. He was amazing at his job. He loved his clients....two and four legged. I inherited his and my father's sense of humor for sure.
Looking back, my life as a young child was nothing short of amazing. My mawmaw hugged me every morning, every night, and every chance in between. With her, there was no doubt how loved I was. My grandparents meant everything to me. We lost my pawpaw to cancer a few years before my mawmaw passed but I take comfort in knowing they are together again in Heaven. I wish they were here to see my children. They both were able to see my oldest. My mawmaw doted on her, she was her favorite. My pawpaw passed when my daughter was still very young and he never got to meet my son. My grandmother, while in the nursing home, was able to meet my son. I am so very thankful for this. Even tho he won't remember her, I have the most beautiful pictures of them all together.
"......forever". She would wrap her pinky around my daughter's, kiss her hand and say that word every time before we left. "Sweet face" she called her. "A bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck"
"Forever sweet face."
