Window Visit

Today I was able to visit my grandmother at her nursing home in Greensboro when I got out of work. Unfortunately they have a COVID outbreak there right now so it had to be just a window visit. The technology with the headsets and the microphones actually make our visits easier than before because my Gram always refused to wear her hearing aids so I was left screaming in a deep voice (because the pitch matters for those that are hard of hearing). I suppose on the outside we would have been a comedy sketch but it was exhausting trying to have a conversation with her. With the headset, I can speak in my normal tone and she understands perfectly. By doing the window visit I can take off my mask and she can read my lips across the glass. Silver linings!

I collected the rings that she insisted be removed from her very alive fingers and am now wearing her wedding band with my own. It is another way to have a piece of her with me always. She also instructed me to “put your name on the back of that painting in my room” and “Take the Perkins coat of arms and give it to Christopher” (he’s my cousin). I told her that we could wait till after she died but she said she wouldn’t die happy unless she knew I had done her bidding. Guys, it has been like this for 20 years. She has used the “I might die soon” card literally for that long and it keeps working. 

Another great line she told me today goes as follows:

Gram: Every morning I wake up it is a surprise I am still alive.

Me: Is it a good or a bad surprise?

Gram: Let’s just call it a surprise…

Heaven only knows when her time will be to leave this earth. She’s ready and waiting. I’ll just keep showing up to the window.

My very favorite letter is going up tonight in which my grandfather speaks about going to a swimming hole at night with some campers from a Quaker retreat for which he was a counselor.  He says while looking at the moon everyone was wishing they were with someone else that night. Man, he was good.