There Was This Day

There was this day back at the very beginning of June.  It was a day of pouring buckets rain, like it had been for several in a row.  It was a day of long coffee time with Brittany.  It was a day of Karen showing up and forcing me to go along with her on a little road trip to get her bridesmaid dress altered at the home of an elderly lady in a small town north of here.  And when I say force, I mean force. 

 

She showed up in my driveway after trying to talk me into it for forty minutes while still at Brittany's.  She called me and said, "I'm here."  My reply was, "I'm not there.  I stopped at the grocery store.  But fine, I'll go with." 

 

Off we went in the pouring buckets rain to Ruby's house. 

 

When we walked in, I knew there was a reason I was there.  And the reason was Ruby was my grandma Gladys showing up to let me know she's still around me all the time.  Ruby's house reminded me oh so much of my grandparents.  There was the abundance of potted house plants all around with the half glass of milk sitting on the table from lunch which her husband was just finishing.  Grandpa Norman was there too.  

 

Karen and I followed Ruby up the orange carpeted stairway into her sewing room.  There was a Christmas Cactus on the windowsill and I said, "I love your Christmas Cactus."  Ruby was surprised I knew what it was and it set off the conversation of gardening, flowers, and sewing.  Ruby sewed all her own clothes as did her mother, a professionally trained seamstress. 

 

There were pins on the orange carpet and old photographs on the walls and we visited while that Ruby crouched down to pin Karen's dress up with the elbows resting on one leg stance just as Grandma would. 

 

There was a reason. 

 

Then we went with Ruby to the local greenhouse.  The greenhouse which has an entire section named after Ruby.  And she introduced us to her granddaughters who work there still and she showed us her favorites and I asked question after question because it was like my chance to ask those questions which I always wish I could ask Grandma Gladys.  She fired back with answers and plucked dead heads and leaves off the plants as we walked along while the rain pelted the plastic roof. 

 

On the way home, I thanked Karen for dragging me along on that trip and told her I felt like my grandma had been with me all day.  We both teared up a bit because she had felt something too.  It was simply special.  Our little afternoon with Ruby. 

 

 

I just finished watering those flowers in the July afternoon sun.  They are blooming and flourishing and of course include geraniums as those were Grandma's flower.  Now I don't just think about my grandma when I'm watering and caring for the blooms, I think of Ruby too.  I think of that entire generation of women.  And I hope that they will always be on my mind, in the forefront even. 

 

They belong there.