Good Company

I've got a Mother's Day present for you.

Each of you.

Mothers or not.  You all had mothers, or grandmothers, or aunties, or someone whose company nurtured you, kept you company, soothed you.

As Mother's Day approaches (here in the U.S., anyway), my heart is heavy with both joy and yearning for this feeling.

Both of my grandmothers have passed on, and I miss them.  The girl in me misses my grandmas for the joy they brought to my life.  The woman in me yearns to know them as women know each other, if they are lucky.

I wonder what they would tell me . . . now that I am grown.

I wonder what they knew that I was not yet ready to know . . . but should know now.

I yearn to sit with them . . . with all the time in the world.

It's not possible, I know it.

But, for a couple of hours this afternoon, I had, quite possibly, the next best thing.

I fell into it quite by accident -- television left on while I was busy with other things.  I sat down to knit a row, or three, and the next thing I knew I was completely captivated.  Most of the movie is improvisational, personal, true, and honest.  An amateur cast playing themselves, watching this movie was like being surrounded by grandmothers and aunties and elderly neighbor ladies . . . with all pretenses dropped. 

I laughed and cried and swooned and swayed.

If you crave the company of your grandmother, or any grandmother, clear some time to sit quietly with these women.  Having watched this movie, I feel rejuvenated and kept company.

Happy Mothers' Day to all of us who have mothers, miss mothers, or need mothers.