Over the Clouds To Grandmother's House We Go

September 08, 2015

Over the Clouds To Grandmother's House We Go

I have never felt more satisfied, tired and stunned after a vacation as I do now after visiting my little 92-year-old grandma and sweet mother. This trip was unlike any other I had visiting grandma. I didn't go to get spoiled, I didn't go to eat all her yummy dishes, I didn't go to get rest: I went this time as a woman ready to be shamelessly useful, work without direction, and do what needed to be done. And I have never felt more useful in my life.

That being said, I'm not sure how to approach blogging about my visit to Abuelita's house. So, as Maria Von Trapp sang, "Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start."

I started by buying all the junk food a nanna should never eat: pancake mix, bacon, brie, cheddar cheese. etc.... I wanted to be sure to make her an awesome breakfast in the morning! Of course, the bomb sniffing beagle dogs of the airport got a nose-full of yummy food so my luggage got gutted and searched. Luckily, they didn't throw anything away! I had a long and great direct flight to get there. Fortunately no one sat next to me so it was like being in 1st class seating!

As the plane started to descend I saw the familiar clouds covering the valley. They were thick and puffy like cotton candy. Each time I have flown in to see my family I look for the dead of my family to be alive and happy sitting in the clouds: for my aunty and my grandpa. When I was little and my aunty died I was told she went in heaven, my mom pointed to the sky so literally I understood that aunty got to play in those clouds. So each time I am landing I look around the clouds to see if she is sitting there and I know she is. You see, there is a point when the plane has no choice but to cut through the clouds and everything turns bright white. I know she and grandpa are in there and they can see me and I can feel them. It is 2 minutes of feeling them around the plane.

"Grandpa, I'm doing my best like you told me to do...goodbye again for a bit."

Then the plane breaks through the clouds and I see the mountains my ancestors came from. The mountains where my usually very low blood pressure goes up to normal 115/70 and I suddenly have a healthy person's energy rather than my usual sluggish 90/50.

Arriving I was so thrilled to see my little mother rushing towards me with a beaming smile on her pretty face. A new addition to granny's house was also there: my "little" cousin who is a very tall lanky stoic young man who is now the man of the house at grandma's. He is there to protect, lift the heavy things and...to feed the new adorable kitten. :) I can't seem to separate this tall young man from the adorable fat baby boy I used to carry around and kiss on his little curls when I could get him to nap. He was such a good baby, seldom cried, danced in his big diaper and was always very sweet. It is so weird when you get to an age where babies turn into adults and adults turn back to babies! And I couldn't be more proud of how my little cousin turned out. He is serious, has an admirable character, morals, grounded, hard-working and sensitive, more adult than most adults I know. He is also sweet to all animals.

Cats love him so he can totally be trusted.

He came to pick me up with my little mom and silently took my stuffed lumpy suitcase and took us home to Abue who was chuckling and clapping her hands ready to squish my face, show me very old family pictures and tell me that I needed to eat more cactus, peppers, zucchini flowers, papaya, beans, fish...the list went on and on. For my grandma and her generation food is medicine and I am therefore in serious need of a trip to the food pharmacist. I quickly ate my tasty medicine then ran up to see some pictures which she couldn't wait to show me.

Holding her treasure full of pictures.

I usually don't show pictures of myself or family to keep it personal but these are really old and sweet which won't harm anyone. Old pictures, old cats and old people are the best. Here we go in chronological order: