Bless her heart!

Since the time J and I began dating, he and my grnadmother have been "in love."  She thought he hung the moon, and he deemed her the sweet little old lady she appeared to be.  Despite my weekly reminders that she's not as innocent as she seems, J always takes up for her and she always takes his side on things.  As a matter of fact, I might as well be the in-law in this particular situation. 

Case in point: I guess we had been married for about a year or so.  My grandmother's church was holding a special service to dedicate their new fellowship hall to a member who had been killed in a freak accident on his farm a few months prior.  She invited us to come, and we did.  When her preacher came in, she introduced him to her famly--her daughter (my mom), son-in-law (my dad), and grandson (my brother).  Then, she pointed toward J and said, "And this is my grandson-in-law, and (pointing at me) this is his wife."  Yeah, we still bring it up when she argues that she doesn't have a soft spot in her heart for J. 

Fast forward to today.  J and I bought her a digital camera for Christmas because she wastes so much money each year on those single-use cameras.  By the time she buys the camera and pays to have the pictures developed (which may or may  not be any good), she's spending a small fortune just to end up with some potentially bad pictures.  While we were there today, my mom got the camera out so we could attempt to teach Nana how to use it.  She brought me the camera and the memory card and I got things set up.  We were just finishing up when mom remembered she didn't get out the case we gave her to keep her camera in when not in use.  Nana said she didn't know what mom was talking about.  We looked through everything she got for Christmas and could not find it anywhere.  At one point, J even questioned whether or not I even wrapped it.  (Yeah, that almost started a fight.) 

But I gave my brother the same camera and accessories, and I knew that I hadn't wrapped their cases in the same box.  I came from a thrifty home.  We wrapped gifts in any kind of box we had setting around that the item we we were wrapping happened to fit in.  I got many Christmas presents over the years wrapped in cracker boxes, paper towl rolls, and even the box our Christmas cards came in.  One of the cases was black and the other was blue.  I had wrapped one in a box that had originally held coin wrappers.  The other was in an empty box of Great Value Instant Breakfast drink mix.

Mom called him to find out if he remembered what his camera case was wrapped in.  His was in the coin wrappers box.  I knew that meant Nana's was in the "Instant Breakfast" box.  When we told her that's what it was in, it was like a lightbulb went off.  She said, "You mean I didn't get something to drink?"  Guess where we found her camera case?  Yep.  In the kitchen cabinet.  Bless her heart.  She said she even thought about trying out that drink mix yesterday morning to see if she liked it.  I guess I'll have to buy her some now.

Sure, I laughed along with the rest of my family, but a nagging thought popped into my head.  Will I ever get to have moments like this with my own grandchild?  Who will help me find my stuff when I'm 85?  And that made me sad.    *Sigh*  Is there ANY part of my life that IF won't affect?

Hugs and love,