Grandma Shirley

“Hey, Deighton, look here‘s the turkey wish bone from Thanksgiving that has been drying out on the windowsill! Let‘s make a wish!” Nana hands the bone to her grandson as each of them count 1,2, 3 and they pull hard on three. “ I wish Grandma Shirley will go back to being normal” Deighton said as he pulled and watched Grandma Shirley talk to her imaginary friend and says, “ I said right now! Get those shoes on! Clean up that mess RIGHT NOW!!!” Grandma Shirley demands of an imaginary child that is in the shape of a pillow. She swats the pillow while saying , “we‘re going HOME!” “ Let’s go.” says Nana as she motions to Deighton to go downstairs to let Grandma Shirley have space. Grandma Shirley is “Great Grandma and Nana is just regular grandma, Grandma Shelly. Nana has been taking care of Grandma Shirley for six and a half years. Nana has a camera on Grandma Shirley so that she can make sure grandma is safe and so that Deighton doesn’t have to listen to the negativity of Grandma Shirley. They lock the door to keep Grandma Shirley safe upstairs and to keep her away from the stairs. Nana always has eyes on Grandma Shirley, tho.

“Deighton, you have such a big heart, Did I ever tell you how much I love you?” say Nana. Nana put her arms around her grandson as he handed the unlucky piece of the turkey bone to her. She then asked as she was handed the broken turkey bone. “Is that what you wished for, Deighton, is to have Grandma Shirley be normal, is what you wished for?” “Yes it was,Nana. Will grandma ever get better, Nana?” “ Sadly, No , probably not going to happen, Deighton. Grandma has sticky stuff attacking her brain and the doctors don’t know what to do, but a lot of smart scientists are trying to find a cure.” Nana explains in the best way for a child to understand.“ I believe in HOPE, Nana. !” replies Deighton. “That’s beautiful, Deighton! How did I get so blessed to have a grandson like you?” Nana said with her eyes well up with tears, but smiles with pride, just the same. Nana thinks to herself and of her wish…I hope I don’t get this awful disease and I pray they find a cure.

Nana, there you are! Can we make pie dough!, Please!” Eastyn, pleaded as she started up the stairs before Nana could answer. “Not now Eastyn, but perhaps later. Let’s wait until Grandma Shirley naps. Let’s play cards! That’s something we can all do. Do you want to play trash? See if Emma and Leo want to play.” Nana asks while she got the playing cards out from the old scuffed up buffet and already started to deal the cards before all four grandkids took their place at the round little table that sat in the middle of the play area. Just then Papa came walking in the basement returning home from his job. Papa is a painter. “Hey deal me in Nana!” Grandpa shouted as all four kids ran from the table to jump up onto him to get the big bear hugs that they competed for. “Grandpa, you’re a mess! You have paint all over your big shirt and your big belly!” “Eastyn, how did you ever get so cute?” Grandpa smiled and persisted with his questioning. Grandpa hurried up and changed and sat down with his white paint stained hands and was already to start a game of Trash. He would leave washing his hands for later. Even Leo, who was in Kindergarten could play trash. Eastyn taught everyone the game last year when she was in Kindergarten. Everyone gets ten cards face down and the main idea is to be the first to sequence your cards one through ten with Kings being wild and jacks and queens are nothing. “I just need a two!” shouted Leo as he pulled a two from the draw pile. “And there it is” laughed Nana “We have a winner! Good job, Leo!”

Eastyn finally got go upstairs and bake with nana. Grandma Shirley looked on and was much calmer now. “Nana , I want to turn the mixer on! Eastyn said excitedly. It was Deighton’s job to read the instructions and Eastyn called measuring and mixing. Surprisingly, Deighton was okay with Eastyn doing the fun part. Normally, this would have been an issue. “One egg, ¼ cup of oil and the cake mix is all we need” read Deighton read from cake mix box.” Okay, push that one right there instructed Nana as Nana locked the big mixing bowl in place. “Holy Cow, OOPS, what happened? “screeked Deighton. Nana, Deighton, and Eastyn’s laughter exploted all over the kitchen just like the flour from the mixing bowl! “Oh look at Deighton. Look at you Eastyn” cried Nana. “Look at you Nana!” Eastyn pointed at Nana as she had one hand over her mouth and the other up in the air as her body jumped away from the mixing bowl that continued to empty all of it’s contents on the three bakers. Eastyn got it the worst and Deighton had a complete white powdery stripe across his chest which was inline of the top of the countertop. “ Oh my, oh my.” Eastyn said while still giggling. Nana reminded Eastyn. “Eastyn it’s okay, remember we don’t care about making a mess when we bake, right?”” Yea, it’s okay, huh, Nana!” agreed Eastyn. “Alrighty then, I guess we need to add another cake mix and I think this time , let’s start out slow with the mixer. Let’s go to number one to start off with and probably not six, “ Nana said this as all three were still laughing. We looked over at Grandma Shirley. She didn’t see the funny in any of what just happened as she stood there and escaped with only one dot of flour on the tip of her nose. Grandma Shirley was pretty awesome through the whole ordeal, because this could have made her get antsy and we would have had to go back downstairs. Grandma Shirley has taught everyone to live one moment at a time and there is nothing wrong with that. Her wish would to be "normal" too.