Mommadosey

My Grandmother on my Mother’s side was a woman who never learned to drive.  In fact she never learned to do a lot of things until my Grandfather died. Then she learned to do things like managing her own money, running her own errands, handling her health care, and ultimately figuring out the busing system in Vancouver.  But she never learned to drive.

I have visions of the two of them, my Grandparents, together running errands.  There he would be in his old fashioned tweed cap and overcoat grumpily driving her around, and she chattering on about nothing with her list of stores she needed him to take her to.

He never went into the stores with her.  She would hustle around quickly trying to get everything on her list for the week as she knew another trip would involve having to talk him into taking her.  And he would impatiently sit in the car reading the newspaper waiting for Mother, his nickname for her, to come back to the car.

I don’t think that this site of the two of them was that uncommon for that generation.  I mean how many memories do you have of the old man sitting in the parking lot by himself reading or taking a snooze in the car?  I have a lot.

So today after lunch I needed to run into the Mall for a quick errand.  Da Husband was with me and was complaining of a sinus headache.  So, I left him in the car and I ran in, rushing around trying to hurry knowing he was grumpily waiting in the car for me.  Finally I finished and I hurried back out the parking lot.

As I turned the corner I saw him sitting there reading his iPhone.  He hadn’t seen me yet, and for a brief moment I got a vision of my  Grandfather sitting in the car waiting for my Grandmother and I.

I slowly snuck up on the car and pounded on the window startling him out of his sleepy stupor.

As he jerked to attention wondering who was violating his peace I wondered to myself, “I wonder if Grandma ever did that to Grandpa?”

Probably not.

But it sure would have been funny.