Walking with Grandma


Today, I hung out with my dear sweet grandmother, whom I haven't seen in about 10 years, because she lives in another country and doesn't get much chance to visit.

She's a really dear and sweet lady. Very happy, very funny lady, who doesn't mind going up escalators but is very scared to go down them. I have no idea why. The other day, I took out the ladder and climbed up to the top of the roof of our house to check out the scenery of Vancouver. You can see the whole city from the rooftop. When I came down I joked that she should climb the ladder and check it out. She said ok, and went to the ladder, and climbed the first two steps. I went and held the ladder steady, thinking she was going to come back down. Then before I knew it, she went up two more steps, then three more, then all the way up. She didn't climb on to the roof, but she did climb to the top of the ladder, which is 10 feet tall. It blew me away. I mean, she's 82 years old, but the heart of a 10 year old. It's great.

Today, we went for a stroll in the forest, just me and her. It's funny, because I don't have to say much, and she'll just start chatting away with me. When she's in the house, she's usually pretty quiet, but the moment I take her out she's very chatty. As we were walking through the forest, we came by a spot where a stream crossed over the path, so there was a lot of mud and water. I suggested we turn around, because we couldn't really go on. She stopped for a moment and said she wanted to keep going. So what could I do? On we went, crossing the stream.

Update from 2023: In a strange twist, I'd forgotten that I'd ever written this... but then took my kids on a walk today, along the same path I took with my grandma. I mentioned how they're walking in their great grandmother's footsteps. And later this evening, I'm going through some old stuff and find this post. Life has some interesting coincidents.

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