Great Grandma and the Water

She gazed out the window longingly at the water just beyond my van. My grandmother age 94 sat in silence lost in a memory I would never be privy to. Maybe her thoughts meandered back to the days of her youth when she resided in Michigan by those great lakes she loved so much. Maybe she was just content to watch the current and be at peace with the silence. Perhaps the water draws her closer to the hands of God.

She often asks to go to the water when I take her out for our weekly lunch date. We go to the river for lunch or just park and look at the skyline. This day I took to the falls and she recalled a time when she walked on those exposed fossils below. Yet, now she has a walker and can no longer make the trip. The heat was heavy 100 degrees so we sat listening to the lull of the air conditioner in the van and just enjoyed the moment. All too soon for her the moment had passed and I returned her to her home with so many others her age, pushing walkers, riding scooters and rolling wheelchairs. Maybe it was just an escape to a place she was before when she was free. When she could drive a car and had the independence to go wherever she pleased at any given moment.

She gazed out the window and her body relaxed her breathing slowed and she was at peace in that moment with the water.