The Traveling Grandmother

Besides loving to travel, there's another reason to travel so much--actually eight of them, soon to be nine. Grandchildren. Our kids and their families are scattered all over the place. Even with Skype, Facetime, and old fashioned phone calls, there's nothing like a real hug.

It was a bit of a depressing birthday last week. Added to the fact I was turning *** (thought I would tell? uh, uh) I discovered that what I thought was a sprained wrist is actually a broken one. But my day was also dotted with times of pure joy when I got to connect with my kids and grands. Now the kids are getting a little old to be cute but the grands, well they certainly turned my frowns upside down.

It started with a morning poem from one who texts through her ipod and was followed a little later by a video posted on my Facebook page of three grands in a pyramid formation singing Happy Birthday interspersed with all sorts of giggles. Then another text later from the poet's brother who covered nicely for his father. He wasn't sure Dad would be able to call me because he was on a business trip but he was sure that his dad would want me to have a Happy Birthday.

The afternoon mail came and my other set of grands had sent me a package: chocolate (probably chosen by our grandson) and purple nail polish with toe guards for a pedicure (surely chosen by his sisters). Now I've never worn purple nail polish before. This should be fun. They too were all giggles as we spoke later.

So even though we couldn't travel to be together with any of them on my birthday, we could virtually travel through all of our modern technology. The world certainly has gotten to be a smaller place.