Are You Grandma Jackie?

The kids entered into their first Pine Box Derby.  Their dad asked them what kind of car they wanted.  Jaqueline said she wanted Herbie the Love Bug.  Jason wanted a Bronco like his dad's.  I have pictures posted of them here.  Jaqueline cleaned up.  She won 2nd place in the race and 3rd place for design of Herbie.  Maybe next year Jason will have the same kind of luck.  Kudos to daddy for doing such a great job on the designs!

 

 

 

 It was Ten O’clock on a cool October night.  Sally and I were sitting at my table in the elevated dining room.  Her son and my daughter were watching a movie on t.v. and my son, who was a teenager at the time was in his room listening to Dr. Demento on the Radio.  I could hear “buttermilk biscuit” playing in the background.  My husband was working the late shift, so Sally usually came over for company on those weekend nights.

 

A knock at the door changed the relaxed atmosphere to a stare in each others eyes saying “who could that be at this hour?”.  The kids got up from the floor as I said “don’t move and be quiet”.  My daughter seemed to let her curiosity take her over more than my threat.  She pulled back the curtain to look who was outside and said, “Mom it looks really important”.  I have been taught over the years by my children to trust their instincts.  Something pulled me to the door like a magnet, while Sally was earnestly asking me not to open the door.  I kept walking, knowing I couldn’t just stand there when something needed my attention on the other side.

 

I unlocked the door and swung it open to find a fairly short elderly man in a green jumpsuit clutching his stomach and batting his eyes as if he had been kicked around like a dog.  Something came over me, I knew whatever he had to say was going to cause me to take action.  He acknowledged that he was aware I had children at home but stated that he was traveling and had much farther to go and in order to do that he was in need of food.  He took a wallet out of his back pocket and showed me his social security card for ID.  I tried to focus on the name but my eyes could not read it no matter how hard I tried.  It was like everything on the card was readable except his name.  He held it out for some time until I finally gave up and said “thank you”. 

 

Several red flags could have easily come up, like the green jumpsuit, and the fact that my dog, Mojo, was just laying there on the porch as if he saw nothing.  That in itself was very odd.  He was a watch dog by heart and everyone was intimidated by his large muscular build.  He just laid there curled up on the rug by this man’s feet as if nothing was happening.  The green jumpsuit was not normal wear for anyone except criminals or person who had been institutionalized.  Even though both were briefly noticed I keep the door open with the screen door locked while I listened intently to the man on the other side. 

 

Once he stated his need, I told him that I could not ask him inside because my husband would be very upset if I let someone in the house this late in the evening, but if he could just wait a bit I would find him some food.  He said he understood and sit on the top step on the porch while I shut and locked the door.

 

Sally stated again she was worried and asked what I was doing.  I said, “I know what I am doing, let me do it”.  She and the kids were all quite while I fixed a PB&J sandwich, heated up a corn on the cob, took a fresh tomato from mom’s garden, and two candy bars my son was selling for his Spanish class.  I opened the door and said “This is all I can do. I hope it is enough until you can stop for a meal again”.   I opened the screen door for the first time as he was getting up from the steps.  The normally aggressive dog was still lying on the rug.  The man took the bag and said, “Ma’am I hope you don’t mind me asking and I am very thankful for the food, but it is a bit chilly out tonight and if you have a jacket I could w…  I knew exactly what jacket to give him and told him I would be right back.  Leaving the door unlocked I headed to the hall closet.

 

The man, still looking very humbled, slipped on the red plaid CPO jacket that was too small for my husband and too large for my son when he gave it to him last week.  It fit the little man perfectly.  He had a huge smile on his face and thanked me for helping him, and as he walked down the stairs he turned toward me and said, “God will bless you for this”.  I said with a smile, “I know”. 

 

See as soon as I saw this man a feeling came over me, as I heard the words I hadn’t heard since I was in Sunday school years before, “you may entertain angels unaware”.  I knew this just might be my time and God was watching to see how true my character was.

 

As he walked down my driveway to the road, I could feel Sally and the kids come up behind and watch with me.  We were silent until he got out of sight.  Sally’s attitude had changed as she watched our interaction; she knew that something special happened at my door that night.  We sat at the table for a few minutes trying to rationalize what had just happened.  We decided that we would get in the car and drive up the road.  If he was a real person we would see him, if not, he was an angel.  We got the younger kids in the car and drove up the highway all the way into town which was about 5 miles away.  He was not to be found. 

 

Two weeks later my sister called.  We were having our usual two hour conversation when she said she had not told anyone this but she believe she saw a ghost.  I said, “what?”  She explained that her and a friend were riding their horses out by Lake Griffy on some trails when she looked ahead to see a man flagging them down at the top of the hill.  She turned to her friend behind her and said “oh no”, thinking a property owner was going to run them off of his land.  Her friend asked what she meant, and when she turned around the man was gone.  She didn’t say anything to her friend but hurried her horse to the top of the hill.  She looked all around the open field and knew no one could walk that quickly into the woods.  In the middle of the field was an old forgotten cemetery. 

 

I asked her right away what the man looked like.  She described his body type and age, when I said, “What was he wearing!”.  She said it was a red plaid CPO type jacket someone wears in the fall.  I shouted, “Teresa, I gave him that jacket!”.  From there I explained my story of the man who came to my door and we had tears in our eyes as we talked about it.  We did not doubt each others story.  We had both experienced this man and knew the other was talking about the same one.  We do not know why it happened to us, we only know “it happened”.

 

Teresa ran into a man who told her of another sighting.  So keep your eyes open for this little elderly man in the red CPO jacket.  He may be the one holding the “will work for food” sign that you actually want to stop and help.

Dad had been diagnosed with cancer January 2003.  He was staying at my house now and we had a the routine of carrot juice and herbal tea along with any other way we could think of to slow its progress.  After a few tries of Chemo we realized his body was not going to take the poison and he and the doctor agreed it was time to give up. 

 

In the evenings we would watch movies I had at the house or rented them.  I told him he had to watch "O Brother, Where Art Thou".  He wasn't sure he would like it very well in the first few scenes then it grew on him. We laughed at the characters ignorance and the line, "we thought you were a toad". 

 

Oh May 4th, a beautiful Saturday evening, dad passed away with his family surrounding him.  Children, grandchildren and great grandchildren up close.  He was not ready to go and we knew it well.  He still had plenty of life left in him and this desease stole it before it was time.  It seems it had won and had the last word until we had a cookout at Teresa and Dick's on Memorial Day, a few weeks later.  It was not surprising when we all drove out to the cemetary with our families to see how things were at his gravesite.  We began to lift the old flowers in their containers from the top soil.  Some of the kids jumped in to help, when all the sudden at the bottom of the pile was a whole family of toads.  There must have been 15 or 20 of them.  The kids were scurrying around trying to catch them and we all began to laugh the same time.  Right away I thought of the movie, and said "we thought you were a toad".   Dad had the last laugh, and we all walked away with a smile knowing he was fine and his character was untouched.  What a wonderful gift to us.

Monday evening rides taking Jaqueline to dance class was once a quiet ride listening to songs while she hummed to them in the background.  As of a few weeks ago, we picked up a new passenger.  Jason decided he would like to start going with us to take his sister to dance class.  As soon as I walked in the door he informed me that I had not yet given them the money I told them I would give for their excellent report cards.  He showed me his new Hockey skates he bought with his money from his grandpa Bryan and new inline skates his other grandma got him.  I guess it was my turn now.  From the time he got in the car he was working me.  Jaqueline settled for my reply of "wait until I go to the bank", but Jason was on a mission.

 

The tension was high in the car, the kids were arguing about Lord knows what.  They had found a bag of things that mom had given me that the kids had left at her house.  Mom had given Jason a moose that pooped brown jelly beans.  We all know something like that will go over well with him.  Then Jaqueline said she wanted one of those.  I dialed my mom and had her talk to both of them.  Jaqueline said she wanted one next time she found it, she didn't care if it was a sheep, dog, or a frog.  Mom said ok, and laughed.

 

I pull in the parking lot to drop Jaqueline off for dance.  I told Jason I was going to lock him in so no one would get him while I take Jaqueline inside.  When I came back out a few minutes later, I saw him making all sorts of sign language to me, so I made gestures back, acting silly with him, or so I thought.  The van of people parked next to my car were laughing and I thought they must think we are funny.  I open the car door to get in and Jason with a panic look on his face said, "grandma, the horn started honking and honking and honking and I couldn't get it to stop.  I said, "did you open the door after I told you not to?"  He said no, I looked at him harder then he said, "I did this", then he pulls up on the lock.  I guess while I was inside he decided to unlock the door and the alarm went off on the car and he was freaking out.  When I came outside he thought I had heard it but I didn't so I was making faces back at him.

 

It didn't detour him from his goal of spending my money.  We went to Target and he shopped and talked, and shopped and talk.  Then finally found what he wanted, a hover craft.  I bought Jaqueline a CD of the Crazy Frog.  It has 80's techno type music on it and we had a blast singing and bopping to songs like,  "who let the frogs(instead of dogs) out", and Axel F from Beverly Hills Cop, all the way back to their house.  There can be fun times with the chaotic.

My son walked into Jaqueline's room while I was watching a video with Jason.  He said he had received an invitation to attend the Civil Air Patrol awards banquet and wondered if I would attend with them.  I arrived at their house tonight to pick them up.  The kids were saying we were going to see a air show, I looked at them quizically, then tried to explain it.  I could tell they were not clear where we were going, or what we were doing.  Only that we were going to eat there and they were hungry.  They each had a Christmas card in their hand that they had gotten in the mail that day ... from me.  You would have thought it was a Christmas gift itself.  Jason went into detail telling me how the snowman had a texture to him and read each word of the card back to me.  Jaqueline was quick to show me her's and I had to find something just as glamorous about hers.  Her's said "Peace On Earth" with a dove.  I told her that was the words the angels spoke the night Jesus was born. 

 

Both of the kids are excited about Christmas and it seems everything they hear or do has something to do with it.  We are sitting at the banquet and Jaqueline's mom said that she came up to her earlier that day and said, "are we going to the Silver Elves Patrol dinner tonight?"  Now that is cute.