Dear Grammar,
I met you when I was fifteen; I was the girlfriend of your only grandson. Your house is the backdrop for so many of my memories dating Brandon in high school. B and I painted my homecoming signs in your basement and we got into a paintbrush battle (how puppy love high school of us) and you laughed and just told us to make sure we clean up the mess when we're done.
You are one of only three people on this planet (and one in Heaven) that calls me "Tabi." I have birthday, anniversary, and congratulations cards saved in a box that are all signed (regardless of exactly when in the fifteen years I received them), "Love, Grammar." I've celebrated holidays at your house, shared dinner with the whole family or just with you at your table, and I've fallen asleep on your couches. Never once have I felt like your house was somewhere that I didn't belong.
And now, half of my life later, you're the Mimi of my own kids. You whisper "I love you," in their ears and the knowledge that they will think of that with fondness as adults fills my heart to the brim. You bring them treats in your purse for B's basketball games, and you sweetly scold me when I tell the kids to clean up. "They're just kids," you say, "it's just a mess."
Because, I suppose after three kids, four grandkids, five great-grandkids and now two more on the way! You know the only thing that is not possible to clean up or fix is time. It keeps marching on, and babies keep growing, and the best thing in life that can happen is to continue to accumulate more loved ones. Which is why you also count all the spouses of your kids and grandkids as your own too. And actually, most of our closest friends consider you family; each of them call you Grammar or Mimi too.
You are a beacon of love, Mimi, to so many people.
I've lost both of my grandmothers; a heartache I have carried everyday since they each passed. And yet when we were talking to the kids the other day about how lucky they are to have three grandmothers to celebrate for Mother's Day, when Grey asked me how many I had, without pause I answered, "Two in Heaven and Mimi; she's is my grandma too."
Because, truly, what is the definition of a grandma but someone who loves you without conditions. And I have always felt that you have done that for me.
Thank you Meems,
love you forever,
Tabi
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