We lived half of my childhood with my grandparents in a very large house on a beautiful lot with giant fruit trees where I spent hours outdoors exploring. While my dad went to college and he and my mom saved to buy a house of their own, I walked to school; made lots of friends and knew my grandparents as two of the four people who looked out for us everyday.
Climbing the steps to their apartment upstairs was a daily routine for my brothers and me, especially when the smell of apple pies or chocolate chip cookies interrupted what we were doing. My grandmother taught me how to prepare most things using only a large mixing bowl and a long, wooden spoon. She also taught me the name of every tree and flower in our yard and how to root a rose bush in a coffee can. From my grandparents’ front window we watched birds and squirrels and laughed as my grandfather mimicked the sounds they made.
After we moved into our new house, we usually only saw my grandparents on Sundays. I missed them terribly and , for the first time, realized how much older they were than my parents. Because our house is a multi generational household, too, I appreciate even more what those years must have been like for my grandparents and am writing down the adventures we had to share with my own granddaughter.
One of those, an unplanned journey across town that I took on the back of my grandfather’s car, will appear in the newest Chicken Soup for the Soul book#CSSAngelsAllAround
It will be in book stores and online Tuesday. You can also pre- order a copy of it from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.
My story “Cardinal Red”, is one of 101 stories of regular people who find themselves in extraordinary and inexplicable
situations. I hope you will read it and I hope you, too, are taking notes on the memories you’re making today.
