Grammy Stories

My mom was the queen of reading – but not in the sense where she’d read every “classic” book or constantly had her nose in a book. No, Mom’s reading always centered around interacting with kids. From the time we were small, straight up until we were either too cool or too busy (probably the later), Mom would read aloud to us every night. Dad did sometimes too, but mostly, it was Mom’s thing, particularly as we got older and we could listen to “chapter books.” Mom read us loads of series: Anne of Green Gables, Little House on the Prairie, All of a Kind Family, Indian in the Cupboard. She would read a few chapters and then we’d beg her for more and usually she’d let us have at least one more. She loved it as much as we did.

So when the kids were born, we started reading outloud to them every night before bed. And my mom did too. And where we, the busy parents frequently only had time for a story or two, at Grammy’s house, bedtime stories were practically unlimited. Mom would go to the library nearly every week and load up her Jefferson County Public Library tote with as many books as it could hold. She found books that we had loved when we were little and completely new authors that we’d never heard of. And when the kids latched on to a particular favorite, chances were good a copy would show up on their birthday or under the Christmas tree, signed “Love, Grammy.”

After Mom died, I worried that since the kids are so young, particularly Ben, they might not remember her in the vivid, technicolor way that I remember her. That thought terrified me. She was an amazing, wonderful, never-to-be-duplicated grandma and I want them to remember her. I wanted something routine to keep her memory going. I wanted something that was essentially Grammy to keep them connected to her. And then I had an idea.

To preserve and honor Mom’s memory, we made a small adjustment to bedtime stories. They are now known in our house as “Grammy stories” and they are read every night that we can possibly manage. The kids have embraced this idea and demand their Grammy Stories nightly. They love to pick out the books that she gave them, remembering, “Grammy gave this to me for my birthday” or “Grammy got this book from the library.”

As I sit with the kids, cuddled up on either side of me, so engaged with the story, I feel closer to Mom than I do at any other time of the day.