This is What Ten Years Looks Like

I used to have this other life. Sometimes it is such a distant memory, I can barely recognize it. In this other life I ran a home daycare. For 14 years. This gave me the opportunity to be at home for my kids. Along the way, I fell in love with a few of my kids. Above are two of them. They lived next door to us when they started coming to our house. I watched both of them from the age of six weeks. The man standing next to me was my Boy. Everyone in my family was in love with that kid. I watched them until he was nine and she was five. When she was born Tru Stories said, this one is mine. She was ready to spoil a little girl. Tru Stories and Banana were madly in love with each other. The Boy was madly in love with me and my son. Especially, me. When he got hurt, even if he was at home, he wanted me to fix it. I knew just how to blow on it. All splinters needed to be removed by me. I was just a phone call away.
I was the sitter during the day. Tru Stories on the week-end. Our families spent so much time together. My kids loved to be at their house. Their kids loved to be at my house. The first vacation their parents took after The Boy was born, he stayed with us. His parents trusted us with him more than his family.
Not everything in life is happily ever after. Things happened and our families went in other directions. We have not seen this family for ten years. The kids stayed in my heart. A few weeks ago we received an invitation to The Boy's celebration from Marine Boot Camp. What???? We knew it was not something we were going to miss. Ten years is a long time. My kids grew up. Way, way up and over my head. It was shocking to see them. I knew they grew up. But not in my mind. I could have hugged The Boy all day. I did a few times. They are beautiful kids. I am sorry I missed the last ten years of their lives. I am thrilled I got a chance to tell them I never stopped loving them.

An interesting tidbit. I am Grammy because of them. They had a Grammy. She was wonderful. She loved them to pieces. She bought them their hearts desire. She would come and pick them up and take them home for a few days. She took being a Grandma to a whole new level. Tru Stories recognized this was a special lady. She would say to me someday are you going to be a Grammy? Today, someday met yesterday. Made me shed a few tears. Some happy, some sad!