A visit with Grandma and a Book

This past Saturday, I went to visit my Grandma at the nursing home for a couple of hours. 

I brought a book to read.  She smiled when I said, “we’ve spent lots of hours reading together, haven’t we?”  Yes, she nodded.

She can’t communicate with me like she used to, but I still find tremendous comfort just being in her presence…patting her hand, making her get tickled, helping her in any way I can. 

I read Staring at the Sun:  Overcoming the Terror of Death (sounds really uplifting, huh?). 

It was beautiful reading though.  Her at the end of her life, me nearing the middle of mine.  One of my favorite ideas from the book is “rippling.”

“Rippling refers to the fact that each of us creates-often without our conscious intent or knowledge-concentric circles of influence that may affect others for years, even for generations.  That is, the effect we have on other people is in turn passed on to others, much as the ripples in a pond go on and on until they’re no longer visible but continuing at a nano level.”

One of my grandmother’s ripples?  Her unselfishness.  Toward the end of my visit, she pointed to G and O on the alphabet I wrote out.  “You want me to go home?”   “Yes,” she nodded. 

She wanted me to go home to be with my family. I had been there long enough "bothering" with her.  

 Often I wished I visited her more, but in her way, she let me know that being home with my family is where she wants me to be.

That’s a memory I want to treasure.