12.
“Standing in my grandpa’s kitchen with him as he opened a popcorn maker. Kernels were still popping and going all over the kitchen. Their little Pomeranians were dashing around, eating popcorn off the floor. With every pop my grandpa was exclaiming ‘dammit! dammit’ while I just laughed. Standing in the same grandpa’s kitchen 20-something years later, as he taught me to make salsa.”
“One summer, we went to visit my other grandparents. There was a new story in a comic strip, Lil Abner, I think. We were there for a week, and when I left, I told grandpa I was sad I’d miss the end of the comic story. A few weeks later, I got an envelope in the mail. Grandma and grandpa had cut out every strip and saved them for me so I could finish the story that had started.
Same grandparents, probably 25 years later, I sat with them in their home as they let my little toddlers put stickers all over them. I have a pic from that day. Grandma has several stickers on her shirt, and Grandpa had them all up and down his suspenders.
That grandma would never let us leave without a little something. She knew my husband liked pickles, so she always sent him home with a jar, and she’d have olives for me. She used to have a little sip of olive juice when she opened cans, so I always have a little sip of the juice in honor of grandma.”
