Elvis Blogs - Elvis McNeely

Our family traveled 4 hours south Saturday morning to visit me mum. Although hectic, like most trips home are, this trip went well. Stela, my three year old, did really well in the car and was not intimidated to speak only English with her grandma and grandpa.

My mom has had some health issues over the last few years. A few weeks ago I was informed she was in the hospital having some different kind of health issues. Unfortunately we were not in a position to get up and leave. Fortunately the health problems were not life threatening. I was glad it ended up this way though. I think we had a less stressful trip with more laughs. It is hard to get a person in pain in a hospital to laugh - consistently.

During the trip I learned some things. 3  year olds learn really really fast and women love free things.

Before the trip Stela could not say "grandma", had no reason too. We normally called grandma "va va", Portuguese version of grandma. But once she learned how to say grandma she said it in every possible instance; grandma (look at me), I miss grandma (when not around her - to get more attention and toys), grandma, you have more surprises for me, grandma - I had a boo boo. All the instances she is craving attention and grandma is giving it. It seems like grandma was the most talked about person over the weekend. Nice to see that...

Not long ago my grandmother went into a nursing home. That led to the family selling her house and moving out her belongings. Much of the family was broken up due to the circumstances and seemed to not want to deal with my grandma's belongings - willing to give to Goodwill. My mom was not willing to let that happen. So she borrowed a friend's garage and filled it with boxes and boxes of grandma's stuff. My mom offered some china and tea pots (from a collection) to my wife. The downside was, you had to go rummaging through each and every box since things were packed in a hurry. The garage was small and grimy dirty (not the environment my wife likes), each and every boxed sealed, most things wrapped in paper etc. The whole thing was a mess and we didn't have much time to sort each box out then decide on what to keep. This ended up being a 3 hour process. But, after seeing my wife happily go through those circumstances I could tell she was happy to be the one to care for grandma's items. To me, it seemed like another woman at the mall with a large gift certificate; that is what I would equate her contentment and smile to.

Now we are hoping mom and dad will visit us up here. They haven’t been up yet to see the house we moved into 3 years ago. Stela is already asking where grandma is and saying that she misses grandma. I never knew how cute a grandma and grandchild’s relationship could be. Lot’s of priceless moments.