Grandma Kay & Her Mysterious Plant
Mom is spooked by Grandma Kay’s gift from an unfamiliar 7-year-old.
👋 Hello, I’m Kevin Ferguson and welcome to 🍷 Rain on the Monte Bello Ridge,🍷 a memoir about health, aging and winemaking. (Book summary) 🍇 This is my newsletter. It includes book research and early release chapters about winemaker Mario Gemello and his centenarian widow, Kay Gemello. 📖 They are my lovable maternal grandparents. You can subscribe by clicking on this handy little button.
Behind the scenes: Book worthy item? Maybe not, but funny enough to share.
Grandma Kay & Her Mysterious Plant
It doesn’t take much to brighten the day of a 101-year-old.
One day in June, an unexpected gift from a stranger did just that to Grandma Kay.
She sat shotgun in a parking lot, while her caregiver ran into a store for a few items. It was a warm day. The window was down.
Like a puppy waiting for her master, Grandma peered out the window. A little boy, about seven, approached her. He was carrying a small plant. It grew out of a white ceramic pot with a nose and ears to hold up the pot’s black rim glasses.
“Here, this is for you,” the boy said.
She was so touched. “Oh, that’s sweet. Can I pay you for it?”
“Nope. Already paid for.”
When my mom visited Grandma Kay the next day or two, she saw the mysterious plant resting on the kitchen table. When she asked about it, Grandma retold the story. My mom was skeptical. She thought it was a James Bond-trick gadget.
“I thought it was a ticking time bomb,” she told me later.
I laughed. “Double-O-Seven’s nemesis is now employing little boys to trick centenarians? Maybe by touching the glasses sets it off. Should we call to warn her?”
Grandma’s parking lot encounter reminded me of a time when I was about five, following Grandma Kay around Macy’s. I wasn’t paying much attention, because at some point, I started following a different lady wearing a similar outfit.
She picked up a teddy bear and headed for the counter.
“Is that for me?!”
When I looked up and noticed I said it to a confused stranger, I scurried away.
I’m sure that’s a story the lady would tell her grandson, when giving it to him.
What a strange boy, I’m sure they’d say about me.
I wonder if the Plant Boy was troubled by needing to come up with a second plant to make up for giving the first to the lady in the wrong car. If only he knew the joy he brought Grandma Kay.
Grandma’s plant has since lived its full cycle of life. Meanwhile, Grandma has replaced it with another one growing out of the same ceramic pot. Luckily, the glasses nor the nose haven’t triggered any mischief or Grandma figured out how to diffuse it.
And it certainly keeps her happy, especially when she thinks she’s in the company of someone who hasn’t yet heard the story about the little boy and the plant.
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