If it wasn’t for the fire that broke out in my neighbors backyard, today would have been the most perfect day of my life, and I’m only exaggerating slighty.

I went to visit my grandparents today. It’s been a long time since I’ve driven up to see them, they live about an hour away, but they’ve been very sad and miss me and my boys, so I decided I’d go see them today.
As soon as I walked in the door, my grandma ran up and gave me a big hug. Then my grandpa waddled over (he has a hard time walking), and asked me if I was mad at him. I told him of course I wasn’t mad at him, so he asked why I never call him or visit him. I felt so awful, I told him it’s because I’ve been busy, but the truth is, I just get busy with my ever day that I’ve not made time for them. That is unacceptable. I will change that.

About a half hour after I got there, my mother showed up with my other grandmother. She’s going on 98 and still full of life.


She loves to dance, so my mom asked her if she wanted to dance. It was like a scene out of a movie. You know those scenes that make you so happy inside and you wish you lived in a family like that? It was beautiful. My mom walked her over to an open area and my grandma started singing “La Cucaracha, La Cucaracha” and they danced and laughed together. It was very touching to watch. My grandmother, almost 100 years old, singing, dancing and laughing with my mom. I was laughing and we were all having a wonderful time. Then my mom told my grandmother to come closer and she started to sing “Let me call you sweetheart, I’m in love with you” My granny started singing along, resting her head on my mom. They were singing together. I started to cry. I couldn’t help but think she won’t be with us much longer and I felt so blessed to share in that moment.

I was reminded of how lucky I am to have so much love in my life. When I got home later that day, I made a trip to the flower shop, got some flowers and made some visits to friends to let them know how much I love them.

Such a wonderful day to be reminded of how blessed I am because of the people in my life.

13 thoughts on “If it wasn’t for the fire that broke out in my neighbors backyard, today would have been the most perfect day of my life, and I’m only exaggerating slighty.

  1. Dixie

    wow yvonne I am sittin here with tears in my eyes. What a wonderful day you had and thanks so much for sharing with everyone 🙂

  2. James

    Awesome. No other word describes that. You’re very lucky and I’m glad you can appreciate what you had today. Awesome.

  3. Da Goddess

    Beautiful day, hon!
    I miss days like that.
    I wish my kids still had at least one great-grandparent around to visit and share moments like that with.

  4. tj

    family is the bomb!
    i just lost my opa (grandpa) less than 2 months ago. it was hard, but the rest of the family have all pulled together to help my oma (grandma).
    also, i was sick yesterday and stayed home from work. but it was an awesome family day … hanging with my wife and two adorable kids. god damn i’m one blessed mutha!
    sounds like you are too. *grin*

  5. dana michelle

    Your grandma is so cute in her little coordinated hot pink outfit.
    She dresses better than I do!

  6. gojou

    �Muy excelente, mija! You are very fortunate to still have both your grandmothers — and a grandfather! — with you. Your children are more fortunate still to have the opportunity to know their great-grandparents, and to be old enough to be able to remember them after they have grown up.
    Your crazy grandmother reminds me of my abolita Luz, who passed away in May at the age of 96. She wasn’t really my grandmother — she was the grandmother of the family I grew up next door to and have known for 30 years now, but I loved her more than my own two grandmothers.
    She was an amazing woman. She was as crazy as your grandmother, in a mischievous way. She was mischievous as hell — a real imp. She had one of the greatest senses of humor I’ve ever encountered in a person. She would make silly jokes — and silly faces to go with them — all the time. She loved to laugh, and she had the sweetest, most wonderful laugh. Some of my best childhood memories are from the times she would come to visit from El Paso, where she lived with her husband when he was still living.
    In her later years she took to calling me El Feo, simply because it amused her to do so. In her later years she couldn’t see very well until she had surgery to remove her cataracts. When I would go to visit back in those days a typical greeting would go like this:
    Me: �Hola, abuela! �Como est�?
    Her: �Eh? No puedo verte. �Qui�n es?
    Me: Soy Danny.
    Her: �Danny?
    Me: S�, abuela, Danny. �Como est�?
    Her: (stomping the ground with her cane) �No! �No es Danny — es El Feo!
    And then she would cackle maniacally at her own joke, and I would laugh, too. Only after completing this ritual would she give me a kiss and a hug and tell this mijito how glad she was to see him. In time I came to identify myself to her as El Feo — to which she would respond, “�Oh no, mijo, no eres feo!” But as soon as I went back to calling myself Danny, she went right back to El Feo. This, from a woman in her 90s. 🙂
    Her health had been slowly but steadily deteriorating for the last couple of years, so when she had a stroke in April it didn’t come as too much of a surprise. And as sad as we were when it happened, we were relieved at her passing in May, as it released her from her earthly suffering and freed her to once again be with Marshall, her beloved husband of 53 years.
    We miss her. But she has left a beautiful legacy in the form of her wonderful sense of humor, which she passed on to her only daughter (my second mom), who passed it on to her only daughter (one of my very dearest friends) — who, as far as I can tell, has passed it on to her only daughter, a sweet little girl I would steal away for my own if I could get away with it. Every time I spend time with these women I am reminded of Luz — a most wonderful legacy, indeed.

  7. ratty

    that was wonderful, yvonne. i’m going to call my 93 year old granny tomorrow… thanks for the reminder of how special grandparents are…

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