Heirlooms

My grandmother passed away eleven years ago, while I was expecting my first child.

She had many problems with her short term memory before she died... some days, all she thought about was the period of time when she was a young girl, newly arrived in America. Unable to speak English well, teased by boys who would dip her braids into the inkwells. We heard the same stories many times over. She couldn't live alone and stayed with my uncle and his wife.

We didn't see her often - sometimes she would recognize us, and others she wouldn't. One funny thing was, she always recognized my husband. I guess the tall, red headed Irish boy stands out in a flock of Germans with dark brown hair.

She had some awareness that I was pregnant. After she passed, my mother was helping to go through her things. My grandmother loved to knit and crochet. My mother found a baby outfit that Grandma had started, and guessed that perhaps it was for me. She was able to figure out which pattern she had been following, and secretly finished the outfit for me.

Yeah. Give a hormonally overloaded, completely sentimental woman a gift like that at her baby shower, and don't be surprised when she bawls.

I loved this picture of B so much, because she was laughing this little Nuhhhhh laugh that only a giddy baby can muster.