Month: March 1997

With my sons in college and my daughter off to Mexico on spring break mission trip, I looked forward to a few days of peace, quiet and predictability. I forgot about my daughter’s cats. I usually toss them outside about 9 p.m. Around 10:30 p.m. my daughter calls them in to curl up next to…

The stack of receiving blankets, tiny T-shirts, pastel kimonos, patterned sleepers and petite socks I found at garage sales for our expected grandchild overwhelmed my daughter-in-love. She puzzled over the quantity and variety – until the day they came home with the baby. “Everything I needed was right here.” Everything except the diapers. Until the…

Mid-February, I e-mailed my son, “Many mothers-to-be nest like a momma bird a few days before labor begins: Cleaning, cooking, preparing for the expected child.” The last week of February, his wife cleaned their two-story duplex top to bottom, not once, but twice, She scrubbed the floors, dusted and re-arranged. Mark pounced on her, “Ah,…

We had a full weekend: Pick up Nate and laundry from SAU-Magnolia. Drive my daughter to her piano lesson, an all night party on Friday and a piano festival on Saturday. Take my visiting father to Arkadelphia when we went to visit Mert, who had repeatedly asked that we come on Saturday. As Sharon gathered…

Although she lived halfway across the country, my mother’s advice during our yearly visits impacted her grandchildren’s lives. We were eating supper with her when my then toddler son pointed to some item on the table, “uh, uh.” I followed his finger and touched the catsup. He screamed, shook his head and pointed again, “uh,…