Grandma's Present

Preparing to give some gifts is a chore...selecting wrapping, etc. Preparing Tickle-me Elmo for presentation hardly brings one to tears, but I believe 18th birthdays are magical, and my oldest son turns 18 tomorrow. Today I put together his "magical" gift and wept all the while I did it. It is both a stamp quilt made by his great-great grandmother and a scrapbook of poems and pictures I assembled, mostly candid shots of him with his grandparents interspersed with poems written by his grandma...the one who died almost exactly 11 years ago.

He was the only grandchild she really knew, but the legacy of the poems should be to all the grandchildren. Her heart was not one to play favorites. A few excerpts from the scrapbook-poems are below:

To Buddy…
I’ve missed you…
Where did you go?
I looked up and you were gone
Carried away in a pretty blanket…
…off in the night…
I’ll keep your crib up
and my chin.

Well I’ve got glasses
But I can’t find them now…
They’re not in my coat pocket
But since I have my coat,
I’ll stitch that seam in it…
When I find my glasses.

O Brave young girl
And I have two…
So bright, so beautiful
Somewhere…

Is this the night for me to sleep?
Who tucks me in?
Who will listen to my prayer?
‘Hi, Honey,’…
May I pray with you?

Gosh it takes a lot of fuss
For me to sit here.
My books, my cup of tea,
My glasses, my pen…
I should have thought to go before I sat down here.

Where are the angels?
Is there one before the one of death?
Should we look that up?
Or just look up…

Grandmas eat sugar and they are sweet.
Grandpas eat pepper and they shave it off
before they can kiss grandmas.

Will you thread this needle?
And find the blue thread
In my sewing box.
I’ll sew a memory…
I’ll mend this and
It won’t hurt a bit…

Grandpa got the Old Maid
And I laughed and laughed
And then he kissed me
And I smiled and blushed…
What a romantic game!

He doesn’t have to be anything
Just to be a boy…
He can sit on these books
In this chair
And solve this puzzle
For me…

Dear Buddy,
I’ll say goodbye here –
And leave the marbles
But I have a plot
Where you can use them –
There’s so much marble there already
And here’s my pen
And my glasses.
You write the sequel.
Love,
Grandma

And so he did. The following excerpt also made it into this scrapbook. He wrote it when he was in middle school.

...after you’d spank me
you’d always come and hug me
kiss me on the forehead
and tell me that you loved me

gee, now I see
what you want me to be
I’ll try and do my best
you put my heart to the test
so I have a dent, out of love
what I wouldn’t give for one more hug
from Grandma.