Great Grandparents...

I have been thinking of my Great Grandmother a lot this morning for some reason. She was a wonderful lady, and even though I didn't get to see her much, she was always one of my favorite people. She was my first pen pal. We lived halfway across the country from each other the whole time I was growing up, but she always sent a weather report in her letters to me, as if I would need to know what to pack to visit her. I think maybe she hoped I would just show up on her doorstep one day for a visit. I remember when I was hitting my hormonal teenage years and started having conflict with my Mom (I was a teenager... That's what they do...), I used to think I would hop a train to IL and run away to live with her. I had this naive fantasy that I could hop aboard any train in town, and it would somehow magically end up running on the tracks just behind her house. Its silly to think about it now, but I think part of it was... I just really missed getting to see her. We took family trips to see her and Grandpa several times when I was little, and I would sit in Grandpa's lap listening to stories and looking out the window, or I would sit on the stairs outside their bedroom and wait for someone to walk by and notice me there. I don't remember a lot about our visits anymore, and that makes me a little sad, but the things I do remember are wonderful. Like the fluffy down mattress in the spare room that we weren't supposed to mess with, because it would have to be refluffed, but we always did anyway. It is possible that the few memories I have of my visits there have become rose tinted after all these years, and with the passing of my Great Grandparents, but they will always be just that to me... Great. I think that's one of the reasons that I want my kids to spend as much time as they can with their Great Grandparents. Because I know how precious those memories are to me, and I want my kids to have similar ones to look back on too. And even if it does irritate me from time to time... That's what Great Grandparents are for... Feeding you things you shouldn't have for breakfast... And giving you a safe place to run away to... Even if its only in your memories...

I'm not sure what brought on this flood of fond memories...

Maybe its the chocolate cake I'm having for breakfast...