Anniversary of a new phase of life

This is the anniversary of the day I became a grandmother.   My grandson is six years old today.    In some ways it seems like yesterday, my bag had been packed and ready in the trunk of my car for over a week, and the airline was on my speed-dial.    When I got the call, I drove from work to the Detroit airport, and flew on a frequent flier ticket to New Orleans.    After the rush to get there, I paced the halls of Baptist Memorial Hospital (which was closed after Hurricane Katrina and is now part of the Ochsner Health System).    I hated that there was nothing I could do to help.   And then finally, finally!, after a lot of courage and hard work from my daughter (in law), my son and a nurse wheeled the new center of our lives down to the nursery.    And I was there, snapping pictures as they walked.

So today I celebrate.   I celebrate the first time I saw that adorable baby boy.   I celebrate the first time his little face lighted up and he shouted, "Guh!" when I walked into a room.   [He called me "Guh!", always with the exclamation point, until he could say Grandma, and I was a little sorry when he mastered the word.]    I celebrate the times he told me I was his best friend in the whole world, and took my picture to show-and-tell at preschool to show 'something he was grateful for.'    The times he's told me that my cooking was so good that he could 'eat a hundred miles of it.'    I celebrate his smiles and his hugs and his silly games and his sweet nature.    I celebrate how my heart swells when I see the love and devotion of his daddy and mommy, and how good he (usually) is to his little sister.    I am so happy to be his grandma.    This is a very good anniversary.