Remember these lovelies from Thanksgiving? My dad’s parents, my Popa and Dodie.
Tonight Dodie is not doing well. Today I was called to come and visit because her precious time is ticking away.
I adore my Dodie. She made the simple things seem so very glamorous; eating chips, drinking coke and playing cards in the motor home. The motor home was parked in the driveway but that didn’t matter, it wasn’t the house. We would make up stories about where we would drive….Europe, China, the moon, all while sitting in the driveway in Plano, Illinois.
When we went out for Chinese she didn’t order sweet and sour pork….she ordered shrimp with lobster sauce? Lobster sauce? Is it made of lobsters? My six-year old world didn’t know such a thing existed.
My 7-Up always had cherries.
Making it a glamorous Shirley Temple.
Tonight she is tiny, shrunken, moving onto her next world. She sleeps, breathing tiny little breathes.
I sat by her bed and told her about the time she bought me ruffled underpants and let me eat two hot-fudge sundaes.
I was three. I flashed my ruffled underpants to the entire restaurant.
I think it was one of the best nights of my childhood.
Tonight I placed a lion and frog magnet on her hospital bed and told her Samantha needs a Grandma in heaven to let her eat two hot-fudge sundaes.
She is a good Dodie- dancing on top of her feet at age four, I would look up at her face. I was dancing on top of the world. I was dancing on clouds.
I am 40….and that memory 36 years ago still makes me smile.
Thank you Dodie. Sleep well tonight no matter where you decide to be. Don’t forget to let Samantha dance on your feet.
I love you.
Samsmom 