ME!
Richard brought Kate to work to visit me yesterday and it was one of my best days EVER! She is so appealing - so sweet - so smart! (One of my best qualities is my objectivity) She visited all the cubicles in my area and met the people that I live with back here in the bowels of the building. They, of course, recognized immediately that this child is VERY special! (I told you - I work with smart people!)
Kate wandered into my office and went straight to all of the pictures I have of "the kids" and their kids. The first picture she found was of Bryce - then one of "Mommy" and "Daddy" - then one with Richard, Greg, Scott, Kate, Bryce, Gregory and Alex (Matthew didn't want his picture taken that day). She loved doing "roll call" - naming everyone in all of the pictures.
Meanwhile, a crowd had gathered at the door to my office - people just smiling and watching Kate. She IS fun to watch! And everyone commented on her curls!
How could you not love this child? She engages everyone she meets! The same thing happens in restaurants. People have a tendency to just stare at her - and smile. What a wonderful way to begin life - to learn that when you smile at the world - the world smiles back.
Anyway... when Kate got tired of visiting with my neighbors, playing "roll call" with the pictures and my screen saver (more pictures of the family) and Richard was ready to leave, Kate again wandered the halls toward the door, stopping in cubicles along the way to see who was in them and to smile and get a smile in return.
At one time or another during her visit, Kate found all the parts of my face (eyes, nose, cheeks, chin, mouth, eyebrows), pointed to those same parts on her father and herself, talked, said "thank you", named the people in the pictures - really gave everyone a sense of who she is and how bright she is. I was SUCH a proud grandmother!!
In retrospect, I find it fascinating that life seems to meet Kate on Kate's terms. As she went in and out of the cubicles, met people in the hall, smiled at my work buddies - she wasn't shy at all. She held her head up, looked people in the eye, smiled and "connected" with them. At the same time, it was obvious that she had her "space" and that people were not welcome inside that space. Interesting. She didn't cry - no one reached for her and caused a reaction. You could just sense it. And everyone respected it. Quite a "presence" for such a little girl.
It was a day I'll remember, for sure! And when I remember, I'll smile again - just like I did when she was here.
"Grandma always made you feel she had been waiting to see just you all day and now the day was complete." ~Marcy DeMaree~
"The history of our grandparents is remembered not with rose petals but in the laughter and tears of their children and their children's children. It is into us that the lives of grandparents have gone. It is in us that their history becomes a future." ~Charles and Ann Morse~
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