Friendly

I've turned into my mother. I remember back in the day, when I was a sullen pre-teen and teenager and I'd go to the grocery store with my mom. It drove me NUTS that she talked to EVERYONE. She talked to the cashiers, she talked to the baggers, who were sometimes (rarely...but sure, sometimes) cute and it was so embarrassing.

Guess what? I have a face that says, "Talk to me, I care."

Sure, my face lies but I don't have the heart to stop people when they take me at face value (ha! Get it?) and talk to me.

At Alyssa’s track meet one blustery Friday afternoon, I stood at the fence watching her compete in the high jump.

Next to me stood a lady who must have been in her mid-seventies.

She was lovely. Let’s call her GM (for GrandMom)

As the relay that was taking place on the track began, the lady next to me said she was there watching her grandson, who was seventeen.

I smiled and pointed out Alyssa, saying she was sixteen.

This opened the door and I found out that my fellow spectator was raising her two grandsons, who are seventeen and thirteen.

She lost her husband quite a few years ago and then, when her son died, she took guardianship of her grandsons.

I didn’t ask where their mother was. Maybe she died when the boys’ dad died.

I also found out that this woman’s mother lived to be 100 years old and mowed her own lawn up until the end.

I mentioned that I lived three miles from my mom and GM told me that she’d lived a mile and a half from her own mother and her brother, who never married and lived with their mom until the end, told her she couldn’t move any closer than that or else she’d end up back in her mom’s house.

I told her that she was a very good person for taking in her grandsons and she replied with a shrug, “You do what you have to do.”

Her grandson who was compete that night fell during a hand off in one of the relays. He happened to fall right where we were standing. She made him show her his hands, which were pretty scraped up. She told him to go wash them and get a med-kit.

Later in the evening, her grandson came up and put his head on her shoulder. She patted his head with her hand. It was so sweet.

When I told Alyssa this story the next day, she said, “You make friends everywhere you go.”

I suppose I do. It’s not a bad habit to have.