Here Today

Everyone has heard the expression, "Here today, gone tomorrow."

Well, when my grandmother died, this was the first time I could really relate to this.

Grandma was one of the healthiest people I ever knew  She was the only athletic-type person in our whole family. Also, she was also the only thin-type person in our whole family. All the rest of us would rather sit and read a book or something, not run on an exercise machine down in the basement.

So when Grandpa called that Saturday morning it was surreal. I answered the phone on the wall in the kitchen. 

"Hi, it's Grandpa," he said. "I'm at the hospital. Grandma died."

Well, what happened was when they got home from the shop Friday, Grandma had said she was tired and thought she might be getting the flu. She laid down on the couch. Grandpa fed the dogs and let them out.

He went back into the living room to see what she wanted to do about supper. She looked white and was breathing funny. It scared him. This is not the kind of thing you would expect Grandpa to do, but he got her into the car and took her to the emergency room. She died there from a blood clot.

Anyway, things keep going on. Grandpa was back in the shop the next week. He had to be. 

When you own a pet shop, it is very consuming. The shop is supposed to be opened and closed at certain times. Sometimes people are waiting out in their cars when Grandma and Grandpa get there. They never start to even act like they are getting ready to close until everyone in the store has paid and out the door.  

Customers have to be taken care of, and merchandise shipments are always being delivered.

There are also living creatures there that need to be taken care of day to day. There is Rita, the big old black cat that wanders around free in there all day. Not often, but once in a while, Grandpa and Grandma would take in a litter of kittens to find them homes. They would just give them to good homes, not charge for them. 

Also, there is Beanie, the parrot.  As I understand it, Grandpa and Grandma got Beanie at some kind of trade pet show. This was long before I was even born. They got him because a bird like Beanie, they thought, would add to the atmosphere in the shop. He is a military macaw, one of the loudest birds on earth. They planned to sell him, but they never did. Beanie, as mean and noisy as he can be, kind of grows on you.

So, Grandpa was back there in the shop, doing his job, almost right away. He seemed to be okay. Grandpa is not a person to talk about his feelings a lot.

Grandma was just gone. We all just went along as usual those weeks in the fall, without her. Let me tell you, it is an incredibly sad thing when someone you love dies. You think maybe it's your fault. Maybe if you had done something different it wouldn't have happened. 

I said this to Mom. She looked at me mad and said she thought this was ridiculous. She said, "Everyone dies. People die. Animals die. It's nobody's fault."

Usually, Grandma took me shopping before school started to get my clothes. Grandma thought clothes were important. As I mentioned, she was thin. She was thin and beautiful. I guess every friend I know wants to be thin and beautiful like her. 

Anyway, Mom took me shopping instead. I got what I needed, but it wasn't as much fun as Grandma and I always had when we went together.

On our way home, we stopped in to see Grandpa at the shop. It was pretty busy in there. People were pushing their buggies around, buying big bags of dog food, cat litter and everything else. Grandpa was checking people out at a register. He doesn't usually work at a register, but as I said, it was pretty busy in there.

A new lady was working at the other register. I had never seen her there before. Most of the people that work at the shop have been there a long time. I never saw her before, but that isn't that unusual. People come and go. It is a nice place to work, but they go back to school, get another job, and have other reasons to leave.

So when Grandpa saw us, he finished with the customer at the register. He came over to Mom and me, smiling. It was nice to see him smiling. He hugged us. 

"It's good to see you ladies," he said, very jovially. "Let me introduce you to Ingrid."

The new lady at the other register was Ingrid.

"Ingrid just started with us yesterday," he continued. "I think she will be a real asset to the shop. A real animal lover and lots of experience in retail."

That year at Thanksgiving, it was quiet at our house. It seemed weird at the table. Mom cooked all day, and the food was really good. Not of course like usual, but it was all there --- the turkey, the stuffing, sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top, all of it. Grandpa was quiet. Everyone, I know, was thinking about Grandma.

 Then on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the phone in the kitchen rang. I answered.  

"Hi, it's Grandpa," Grandpa said. "I'm at the shop. I just got married." To me this was surreal.

It turns out that Ingrid had been a customer at the shop for a long time. She has this little dog, part chihuahua, and had been living in the apartments across the highway from the shop.

So Ingrid and Grandpa had got married, and she and the chihuahua, Julio, moved into the house with Grandpa and the big dogs.  

The weekend after, on Sunday when the shop is closed, Grandpa and Ingrid invited us all out to eat. Ingrid is a small lady and talks with an accent in a high, kind of chirpy voice. She comes from Norway. Ingrid came to this country with her husband she said, "as a bride."

Her husband had died two years before this.

Everyone had a nice time at the restaurant. Ingrid is nice. You have to give her that. She smiles and pays attention to every word anyone says. My little brothers, who are twins, talked a lot to her during lunch. She answered them like they were grown-ups. Grandpa seemed happy like his old self.

After lunch when we were going back out to the cars, Grandpa and I walked together.  

"You know, honey," he said, "Ingrid doesn't replace Grandma. Nobody could. Ingrid is a very good person. I love her, and she fills the space."

On the way home in the car, I said, "Ingrid makes me think of a little lady leprechaun."

Dad made a kind of gulping hiccup noise but he just kept driving. Mom smiled and said, "Maybe, sweetheart, but let's just keep that between us."

So on Christmas Eve, Grandpa and Ingrid came to our house. The next day, Christmas, they were going to Ingrid's daughter's house. Her daughter lives upstate.

Ingrid brought the dessert. There was a big tray of all different kinds of cookies that she had baked. Some of the kinds of cookies I had never seen before. It was not just your usual chocolate chip cookies. Ones that I especially liked were like little vanilla stripes with raspberry jelly down the middle. These particular cookies taste like butter.

And there was this big bowl of rice pudding. My brothers and I do not really like rice pudding, but we of course were trying to be polite. So we each got a bowl of it.

"This is something that we do in Norway every Christmas," Ingrid explained. "In the pudding, there is one almond. Whoever finds the almond in their bowl gets a prize!"

Well I got the almond. Ingrid pulled my prize out from under the table. It was a kind of lipstick that changes to a color that is different and perfect for each person.

I cannot tell you how much I love this lipstick.

Well the twins, who are only eight years old, looked a little disappointed that they did not get the almond. For a minute there, they looked very disappointed.

Then Ingrid, in her chirpy little voice said, "Since we don't know who will find the almond, there is a prize for everyone. One that they would like!" 

The twins each got a kaleidoscope, a kind of tube that you look into and see all kinds of different designs. Mom and Dad got a box of tiny colored glass Christmas ornaments in all different shapes. Grandpa got red suspenders.

It was a very nice Christmas Eve. Peaceful and happy like it's supposed to be. It was much, much nicer than I thought it would be without Grandma.

Even though Grandma is gone, every one of us, I think, is glad that Ingrid is here today.  

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