Memories (and a funny story)

Upon returning home from Indianapolis, I have been meaning to write about a memory I had while I was helping out with Abby.

One of the things that I did while in Indy was to deliver Abby to and from preschool. The process has clearly been planned out by the preschool teachers and the parents are expected to adhere to the rules for drop off and pick up. I was instructed by Carrie exactly how to proceed. Once I pulled into the back parking lot, I unhooked Abby from her car seat. She crawled up into the front seat and I pulled into the line of cars which wound from the back parking lot through to the front parking lot as each car unloaded it's precious cargo. The teachers come out and physically take each child from the car and they are taken into the church for preschool. The parent, or in my case, grandparent does not have to get out of the car at all. At the pickup time, the reverse happens, the child is physically put into the car, then I pull into the back parking lot and fasten her into her car seat.

There is something inherently satisfying about dropping your grandchild off for preschool. Since I only had to drive up and someone else took over, I had time to really appreciate the feeling. I'm not sure if the feeling comes from stepping in for that short time and experiencing her day; or if it has to do with the feeling that here I am, involved in her life and being the grandma dropping off my little one while mommy is home with a new baby. I think it also had to do with the normalcy of preschool and the gifts which both Abby and myself are able to enjoy. At any rate, I had the luxury of remembering back to when my girls were little and a funny story that I feel I must share.

This particular story is about Lissy and a particularly difficult morning that we had before school when she was in elementary school. I will just take a guess and say about 3rd grade. Difficult mornings often consisted of not agreeing about much of anything, which could include clothes, breakfast, chores, after-school instructions or any combination of these things. So this morning, Lissy and I just absolutely clashed, which ultimately resulted in tears and anger and starting both our days in awful moods. I went off to work and she went off to school still mad at each other for some very insignificant reason ( I assume all mothers and daughters experience this.)

I got to work feeling very regretful and sad that I had allowed both of our days to start out like this. So I decided that I would call her at school to tell her to have a good day. I called the school and asked to speak to her and they allowed me to do that. She was called to the office and when she picked up the phone and said 'Hello"; I began my heartwrenching, sad story, telling her that I was so sorry and that I loved her; that I wanted her to have a good day; that she meant the world to me; that we would not have any more mornings like that again (even though we did) and on and on.... When I was all done with my 'I'm so sorry' speech, I hear a little voice say "Who is this?" So I reply, well who is THIS? The little voice says "This is Melissa St____ly".

Okay I just poured out my heart to the wrong Melissa. So with some semblance of dignity, I tell this other little girl to please send my Melissa to the phone. I managed to work up another good "have a good day" message for my Lissy , but it just wasn't as good the second time.

As Lissy and I talked about it later, she says that when Melissa St__ly came back to the room, all she said was "I think it's your mom".