Sunday evenings in early August are largely about relaxing. They are about catching up with family, baths, and spending time reading. They are full of sunlight and relaxation. This particular Sunday evening in August was no exception. I clicked over to the other phone line checking for messages after ending a phone call with my parents to find the surprise of a lifetime.
The clock at the foot of the stairs chimed 7:00 and I sat in my daughter’s favorite green chair, a glider bought for me during my pregnancy with her, listening to a voice I never thought I would hear. The soft Kentucky accent filled my heart as I trembled and listened to her message. What strength and excitement and love it took for her to reach out to me and leave that message. What strength it would take for me to respond. She took a chance; would I take a chance?
Having listened to the message a few times, I did what I thought was best… I called my parents! Despite being 38 years old, I felt no qualms about picking up the phone and sharing this surprising event with my family.
What would I do?
How would I respond?
This call was out of the blue as it was my understanding that such a call would not happen.
But it happened.
I concluded the second call of the evening with my parents – all of us deciding that I would sleep on it and return the call in the morning. With this as my plan and my heart finally settling after the evenings surprise, the phone rang again…
And my life changed.
My life changed for the second or third time in a matter of months.
This woman, my daughter’s paternal grandmother took a chance. She wanted nothing more than to talk to me and learn about my daughter, her granddaughter, and to give that little girl all the love she could.
To her I spoke. I shook as I told her of my daughter – our lives. She listened as I took a chance and opened my heart and my life to share love.
My heart opened wider than I ever thought it could as I listened and shared and even laughed a little. Tears in my eyes, I felt the ten years weighing heavily – ten years my daughter didn’t know her grandmother; ten years her grandmother didn’t know she existed.
Then I took another chance, I asked my daughter; my nearly ten year old daughter, if she would like to talk to her grandmother.
And my daughter took a chance too.
She laughed and talked and chatted and shared her life and her heart.
That night my daughter and her grandmother, her Enesi, started a little tradition – they started talking and laughing and sharing their hearts every weekend. They chase cats and build forts, all over the phone. They play hide and seek and enjoy one another’s company. They embrace as only they can.
On one August evening, lives changed; hearts opened; and relationships began. On an August evening, when my daughter was 9, three women took a chance to open their hearts and share their lives.
6 comments:
That is really something. I have phone calls I need to make. Thanks for the reminder, and thanks for sharing. :)
I'm moved by your words, M.
This is truly "The Exception" and I'm touched.
Love to your for sharing this beautiful story with us.
~xo
What a beautifully heart-warming story. Truly. Reaching out. Taking chances. Casting doubt aside. Taking that leap. Keeping an open heart truly knows no bounds.
Beautiful, M. And perfectly in sync with where I am today. I had a long, leisurely lunch with my brother, from whom I was distanced for many years. But a few years ago we decided to change that, and now thoroughly enjoy our monthly lunch date. Your story, and mine, remind me again that what a relationship is today has little to do with what it may be in the future. Relationship cutoffs can be transformed in an instant. All it takes is courage and love, which you so abundantly express here.
Three women took a chance to open their hearts and that is all it takes. "What strength and excitement and love it took for her to reach out to me and leave that message. What strength it would take for me to respond. She took a chance; would I take a chance?"
Oh TE, how come it takes strength to connect to the ones we love? How come we are so often NOT intimate with the very people who are so connected with us?
What stops us and what gives us strength like your daughter's paternal grandmother.
Is it finally the love that she allows herself to feel, that makes her not want to miss out. Was it that she has felt your Love somehow that made her take that chance?
For me reaching out is when I do allow love to surface rather than all the logic why I should and shouldn't. It is in the end the ultimate act of love by all three of you, isn't it? You all are very generous souls. xox Wilma
Thank you for these comments. I embraced this woman before she ever knew that my daughter and I existed. She embraced us as son as she learned of us. She and I now enjoy a wonderful relationship that is growing and evolving. I don't know what the future holds - right now though, I have gained an "other mother" just as my daughter has gained a grandmother.
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