Chapter of memoir

My first friends name was Leo. I can sort of remember what he looks like, but sometimes I get confused if he had red or black hair. He wasn’t real. My second friend was named Sarah, she was older than me and I too, sometimes get confused about her hair color. She wasn’t real either. My first best friends name is A. She was born to our parents when I was 15 months old. I slept beside her crib a lot after our parents put us to bed. I never liked sleeping alone, I have nightmares. My mom would come check on us in the middle of the night and sometimes take me back to my own bed. I have small memory of her telling me I shouldn’t sleep on the floor. Currently though, on this date, my mattress lies on the floor without a frame. I’m too good at listening to rules, so I let our first family dog, Oko sleep beside her crib. When she was older and got a bed, I’d sometimes sleep on the floor beside that. A loved stuffies, hundreds off stuffed animals, most (if not all) with names. I had a few, I had a bumble bee I once threw out of the car window while my mom was driving, she pulled over and went and got it for me. I think I might still have it, I can’t remember. I also had Button Nose, a tiny small teddy bear who once got his nose ripped off my one of my cousins. Someone sewed it back on for me. I had Moose, a creative name for a small stuffed moose that my uncle ky, who now watches over me. I also had Red, a red teddy bear that was well made and wears a scarf. When I bought my first home in Southern, AB, I had so much joy from my friends little girl who was really drawn to Red; she carried her around all day during a visit and it bought me so much love to my heart. One night, our mother had no patience for mine and A's shenanigans, but she must have heard us giggling or something, because she came into Adoncias room to check on us. We heard her coming from upstairs, and I jumped into the strategically piled stuffies, and I hid as I watched my mom come in and do a double take. She went back upstairs, or maybe into my room where I would hide pillows in my bed in hopes of tricking her that I was in my own bed. Me and A found so much laughter and power in that moment. I still sleep better with someone else in bed with me. 

When I was maybe four, I wanted to see something grow, from in my own mind. We had a deck from the second floor of the kitchen, and I could fit underneath it. It was shady under there but had nice dirt. I planted a few popcorn seeds and watered them every day, waiting to see if a popcorn plant would grow. Eventually, a sprout turned into a long tall plant that started to poke through the deck, I think my mom found it and wondered why weeds were growing so tall, so they were removed eventually. My parents always had this small tree in our house, their love fern if you will. As I write this, the rubber fig now named Franklin, lives in my kitchen and is maybe 24 years old or so. It was the first plant my parents ever had together, my sister and I have taken turns housing him, I don’t remember how long he’s been named Franklin, but I’m sure A named him. One time, I was in the middle of moving around, and for a brief time during my 20s, I lived with my Grandparents in Chestermere, AB. It wasn’t the first time I lived with them, when I was young my parents moved into their home, on Raynard Cresent in Forest Lawn, Calgary AB. I have seen photos of this time, mostly pictures of me napping with my Grandpa remain in my memories. My sister and I continued to have many sleepovers at their new house in Chestermere after they moved; we would sometimes camp in their trailer in the backyard, sometimes play in the blow-up pool, and for as long as I felt comfortable, I’d wear one of Grandpas t-shirts to bed during every sleepover. In the mornings before we went home, Grandma would take us shopping at Zellers and we loved getting new clothes. We would give a fashion show to our grandparents when we got home, and sometimes again to our parents when they would pick us up later in the afternoon. It was so much fun. Sometimes at Zellers, they would take us for lunch and I was allowed to order iced tea or chocolate milk to drink. When we showed up to their house excitedly for weekend sleepovers, my Grandpa would make the joke “Are ya movin in?!” He would make it again as we left with bags of goodies; “are ya movin' in?!” When I moved in as an adult, I left Franklin with one of my best friends at the time, she shared the same last name as me, and ironically lived in Redcliff, AB; a place I’d never thought I’d land.