Gracie Lou came to live with me and Captain Kid almost two years ago.
It was August of 2008. My summer had been moving right along, and very well too when I got the call that I always knew I would get but hoped never too. My beloved Grandmother had passed away. They had tried to reach me on and off throughout the whole day but the Captain and I had spent the day on the water.
I can remember everything about that day. How the air smelled. What the sky looked like. How hot it was outside. Where we took the boat that day. I can also remember coming home and hearing that voice on the answering machine telling me to call, there was some bad news. I couldn't do it because as soon as I heard the voice I knew. I mean all the way too the bone I knew.
It's been almost two years ago now since my Grandmother passed away. She had lived to be almost ninety years of age. After she passed I can remember my Aunt saying there was no need for me to rush back to Maryland because there was not going to be a funeral. She wanted to be cremated and she didn't want a big fuss.
In all the years I have been on this earth I never really got the idea of what a funeral was supposed to be about. I always thought it was a such a waste because the person whose life you were celebrating probably would have enjoyed the party more if they could have been there. Now in retrospect I get that the whole idea for the funeral is really for the people that you leave behind. A sort of closure for them to say good bye.
Not too long after we got home from my Grandmothers house, which in and of itself was really weird, the house still smelled like her. (So much so that I expected to see her sitting on the couch watching TV with a book in her lap.) I got the opportunity to adopt Gracie Lou. Now what you need to understand is that the Captain was adamant about us adding to our tribe. He felt we already had enough of the four legged creatures running around. Even so, about week after getting home I met Gracie Lou and that was all it took. She literally had me at Meow.
I brought her home and the Captain, who had been so steadfast about adding to our brood did not so much as blink. It was crazy but on some subliminal level he really got the fact that I needed something new to love. I remember panicking as I heard him coming in through the garage because I had not acclimated her and the others yet. He took one look at her and she was a part of the family. It really was love and first site for both of them.
So today as I sat down to write my entry for the day I was feeling nostalgic but instead of reminiscing on the past I found that I was really grateful for the now. I have a husband whom I still adore after all of these years of marriage and my own version of a family that suits me fine.
I also like to believe that maybe my Gram played some small part in Gracie Lou coming to live with us and for that I say, "Thanks Gram."
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