The Love Remains

We went to see Nana last weekend. We asked Riley, "Do you want to go to Nana's house?" "Yeeeeees!" he replied from the backseat. When we arrived, Riley went straight to her and gave her a big hug and kiss, then proceeded to crawl up in her lap. What a treasure it is for me to know that Riley feels the same way about her that I do!

We went in the backyard (because Riley wanted to, of course) and Riley played on the back porch. That porch is now empty except for a few lawn chairs we moved from the garage. The lawn chairs we used to sit in to eat watermelon on the backporch. Long ago, I remember that porch-- it was filled with hanging baskets that Papa had woven. Those baskets filled with airplane plants. The overgrown flowerbeds were filled with well manicured rose bushes. Papa taught me to roller skate on that backporch (and they had a rock roof at the time--very tricky). The grill Papa and Uncle Roy used grilled steaks and hamburgers on was covered....as it had been for years. The dandelion bulbs I planted with my grandparents decades ago were still there--green leaves, no flowers. The lawn I used to mow (and Papa used to weedeat and edge) is now kept up by a lawn service. The gate I would go in and out of won't close properly and is propped closed by a rock from the outside. The smoker that The Railroad Commission engineers built my grandfather when he retired, that he smoked millions of briskets perfectly on.....that hasn't been used in, well, 14 years.

Russ noticed the gutters were overflowing with sticks and leaves. He melted my heart when he suggested we take a day during the summer to go to Nana's and work on the yard.

The house doesn't looked as loved as it used to, but the love remains. Nana still lives there with "her girls" and I don't get to visit her as often I used to, but she remembers that I love her. She remembers that she loves me.