The Grandmothers of Northampton have been helping me out lately. We’ve had a beast of a two weeks. I think the worst may be over, which is why I have 5 minutes to write about it. We’ve been slogging through it, staying upright from dawn, well past dusk. Sitting down could be disastrous during days like these.
A child came down with strep. The mini van broke down on Thanksgiving Day, on the highway with my kids and niece on the way to dinner. The repair bill climbed and climbed past $2000. I cried.
Early in the week following Thanksgiving, I went to pick up the kids, I fell on a particularly nasty piece of sidewalk in front of school when I heard Theo crying in the bike shed. Only it wasn’t Theo, it was some other child refusing to leave the bike shed, which became clear to me only after a grandma ran over to me to pick me and dust me off. No one else either saw or thought I needed help. I went down pretty fast and my face was cold. I couldn’t tell if I was bleeding and my heart started racing because I’m not famous for clotting so well. I was assessed for damages by this grandmother and deemed fit enough for mothering. I proceeded to pick up the kids with just aches and pains, no blood, but a still racing heart.
Sore and angry, we tried to make our way through the afternoon. We took the Subaru to the UPS store. Well we tried. It wouldn’t start. I gave it some time, it started. I ran to the drop box, leaving it running so we could quickly go home, get into our pajamas and try everything again tomorrow. But it stalled and wouldn’t start this time & had rolled into the middle of the parking lot. I got out and sighed. Some guys walked by into the bar. It was nearly 5. I called Matt and popped the hood (which is just something to do really, if you are me). A grandma approached for a second time that day -she pushed my car into a parking spot, first with her body, and then when that didn’t work so well, with her Honda Civic.
The children and I thanked her profusely. I found two pieces of leftover Halloween candy and an umbrella stroller in the car and we walked home in the rain. We put on our pajamas and had mac n cheese for dinner. We lived to fight another day. That was more than a week ago. I’m still sore from the fall and still grateful to the grandmothers of Northampton for having my back that day.
And to think that you too will be a grandmother someday and can save the world. We pray that the rest of your holiday season goes smoothly until we all return in 2011!
Not to mention the 50 something grandma made out of rebar and bear sinew who helped me push the car uphill and into a parking space.
I think from this post maybe you don’t actually live in Northampton, although you’re live somewhere where the power went out over Hallowe’en.
But since you have (or appreciate) Northampton grandmothers, here is a link from this Northampton grandmother that you may enjoy:
and
about the library, with Volume II appearing tomorrow.
If you don’t live here already — you might consider it!
🙂
Just read About —
So you DO live in N’Hampton!
The world is small —