Granny Falls In Love

Now, once upon a time there was a little girl and her parents called her Joy Baby, and the adventure of that time of her life was being a little girl, and there are many stories about her, and Granny will tell you all of them that she can remember, but those are stories for another day. Now Joy Baby, who was the baby then, and whose life was complete, grew up and became Joycelyn and went to school, and the adventure of that time of her life was going to school, and there are many stories about her doing so, and Granny will tell you all of them that she can remember, but those are stories for another day. After Joycelyn was grown up, her life didn't feel complete any longer. But one day Joycelyn had a baby of her own, and his name was Richard, and the adventure of that time of Joycelyn's life was being a mother, and there are many stories about Richard, and Granny will tell you all of them that she can remember, but those are stories for another day. When Joycelyn had Richard, she became Mom. And then she had Julie, and now the adventure of that time of her life was having two babies, and her life was complete again. And there are many stories about Julie, and Granny will tell you all of them that she can remember, but those are stories for another day. Now, eventually Richard and Julie grew up, and then they moved away. Mom was very sad about this, because now her life was not complete any more. But, she knew that children are supposed to grow up and move away, and so she was glad that they had done it so very well. And the adventure of that time of her life was being on her own, but it wasn't as much fun as the other adventures had been. Richard and Julie had both turned out to be adults that Mom could be proud of, and so she went about her life and was glad.

After a while Julie met Ted, and Richard met Kathy, and they fell in love and Mom was very happy to see her two children so happy. Also, Mom was happy that now she had Ted and Kathy to love. "How lucky I am," she said, "I started with only two children, and they went out and got me two more wonderful ones to love." And so for a while Mom's life was complete again, because she had two more grown-up children to love. And the adventure of that time of her life was to love two new children. And things happened, and Mom moved to Alaska, and there are many stories about Alaska, and Granny will tell you all of them that she can remember, but those are stories for another day. Now, Mom loved Alaska, and Richard and Kathy moved there too. But Julie and Ted did not, that is not where their life led them. And Mom was sad about that. And as time went on, Mom's life was less complete. It was time for a new adventure, but it wasn't happening yet.

But before too very long, although it seemed very long to Mom, and also to Julie, Julie called Mom and said "Ted and I are going to have a baby!" And Mom was so happy, and she knew that this was the adventure for this time of her life, and just what she had wanted to make her life complete. And Granny's going to tell you all about it now, because that is the story for today. So, when the time came, Mom got on a plane and flew to Philadelphia to be with Julie and Ted when the baby was born. When she got to the airport in Philadelphia, there were Ted and Julie — and Julie looked so different, that Mom didn't recognize her at first. At first she saw Ted and wondered who that strange pregnant girl was that he was with — then she realized that that girl was Julie, with her hair brown! And Julie and Ted and Mom were all excited, because the baby was coming very soon now, and they could hardly wait. Actually, the baby was two weeks late, so they were tired of waiting.

So, one night Julie went to the hospital to get ready to have the baby, and after Ted and Mom had gotten her checked in and settled down, they talked to the midwife. The midwife said that Julie would sleep through the night, and labor would be induced in the morning, so they should go home and let Julie sleep. Ted and Mom went back to the apartment (after they went out and ate Greek food) and went to bed. The next day they got up and ate breakfast and were in no hurry because the midwife had told Mom that it would be some time before the baby came. But, pretty soon they couldn't wait any longer, so they went to the hospital. And what do you know, labor had been induced earlier than the midwife had planned, so Julie was much closer to having the baby than they had thought. So they were very glad they had left as soon as they did, actually they wished that they had left earlier.

Ted stayed in the birthing room with Julie, and Mom went to the waiting room and read her book while she waited for the baby. She knew it could be some time yet, so she had brought a very big book. Now, Mom had hardly read any of her book when the midwife came and said that Julie needed to talk to her, so Mom got her book and her cape and followed the midwife back to the birthing room. And when she opened the door, there was Julie sitting up with Maya in her arms. The baby was already here! And Mom was astounded. Julie looked so pretty and pleased, and Ted looked so proud, and Mom felt so full of love. And that was when Julie became Mama, and Ted became Dado, and Mom became Granny. Because Maya had made them so.

Now pretty soon Mama let Granny hold Maya, even though Mama never wanted to give her over for even a minute, but she loves Granny so she did. Granny looked down into Maya's face, and it was the prettiest face in the world. She kissed Maya's cheek, and Maya felt so soft, and smelled so sweet, and Granny wanted to spend the rest of her life holding Maya. When Granny looked into Maya's beautiful brown eyes she was overcome, and she felt all silly and goose bumpy and soft and fine. Granny was enchanted. She fell in love with Maya in an instant. Granny knew that now that Maya was here, the world was a finer place. Music sounded better, and food tasted better, and the snow was cleaner (even in Philadelphia) and life was altogether better. This was exactly the adventure that she was ready for now. And Granny's life was complete.

Happy 11th Birthday, Ka-Maya, Ka-Moona, Ka-Mine