Meeting Grandma

Annalee's grandmother, my mother, died a couple of weeks back. Annalee and Grandma got to meet at the hospital, and they both appeared to be glad of it. "I want to touch her," Grandma said, reaching for the nearest part of her granddaughter. Annalee, at 19 months, knew to look in her grandmother's eyes extra hard.

When later in the day Grandma's breathing grew labored and it appeared that we would lose her right then, she heard Annalee's laughs as she came back into the room from the corridor with her mom and appeared to be called back from death. Grandma turned her head in the direction of the laugh, smiled through her suffering, and managed her own quiet chuckle.

It was her last day of full consciousness, and it was a great blessing.