Laurel Elisabeth Stevens

Alvin, Ralph and Virginia, circa 1946 We visited Grandma Virginia at the end of December on our road trip home from Michigan. She was asleep when we arrived around 4 in the afternoon--John, Elisabeth, Henry and I.  I was determined to see her though, so I decided to wake her up.  She sleeps plenty, I told myself.  I sat on the bed and said gently, "Hi Grandma, it's Laurel."  No response--she was sleeping soundly. I told John and the kids to go down the hall and enjoy a card game, and I sat with my grandma. I tried for a while to wake her up by gently rubbing her back and saying her name, but then that seemed like that was just not going to work . . . so I started singing.  "O come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant . . ." it was still Christmas after all.  During the third verse she opened her eyes and turned her head toward me with a big smile. "That was beautiful!  When's the concert?" "Grandma that was the concert!" ...

Laurel, Elisabeth and Grandma Virginia--December 2012 John and I and the kids wrapped up our Christmas traveling with a visit to my dad’s mom, Grandma Virginia.  She’s 96, and losing height with every year, it seems.  But her smile and her wink are as bright as ever . . .if not brighter.  The smile is fine, but that wink of hers, it stabs my heart every time.  It hasn’t changed in all the years I’ve known her. She recognized us, but I said our names clearly just in case she’d forgotten.  I'm never quite sure.  She raved over how the kids had grown.  It had been a year and a half since she’d seen them.  We’ve all changed in that year and a half--the kids and Grandma the most.  Right away she was asking if I’d seen Mother, and when the others were coming. Mother, I assumed, referred to her mother, Nana, who lived with them all the time my dad was growing up, but who passed away a generation ago.   Thoughts ran throug...