Good Grief

Rachel has been texting Grandma's phone to tell her that she loves and misses her. Andrew was tempted to text back to Rachel from one of Grandma's old devices, just to mess with her. But he decided to just let her have that connection for a little while longer.

******

Tonight at dinner Grandpa was asking about Thursday plans (because Thursdays are the worst; everyone's always going on about Mondays but Thursdays are miserable at our house (at least this semester)) and said that he could take Miriam to her organ class.

"Grandma offered to take me to organ on days like tomorrow," Miriam said solemnly.

"She did," I agreed.

The table was quiet for a minute and then Miriam burst out, "Well, I guess she got out of that!"

I think she might have a bit of a nervous humour.

******

This morning Benjamin asked me what I wanted to do when I was Grandma's age.

"Not die, I hope," he added.

"Yeah, me, too," I said. "Hopefully I will be ready to go on a mission by then."

"Haven't you already gone on a mission?" he asked.

"Nope," I said.

"What?! Dad has!"

"I know," I said, and then I explained about the mission age change and how I had been thinking about a mission but when Andrew came home from his mission he swept me off my feet before I'd committed to the idea. But I think going on a mission later in life is still on the table.

"Who do you think your companion will be?" he asked me.

"Ummm... Daddy," I said definitively.

"But he's a boy!" Benjamin objected.

"That's the way it works when you go on a mission when you're married," I explained. "You go with your husband or wife and they're your companion for your entire mission."

"Oh," Benjamin said. "I will miss you when you go on your mission."

"You're a sweet boy," I told him. "I will miss you, too."

"I won't be living with you then so I will really, really miss you," he told me. "Will you send me post cards and things? Like, can you take pictures on your mission and send them to me and tell me all about it. Because then I will miss you less."

"That sounds like a good plan," I assured him.

Then he caught me off guard by saying, "I miss Grandma."

Don't we all?