Me and My Nana.

I recently had an occasion to have an impromptu sleep-over at my grandparents’ house. I live about 50 miles away from them and, not having planned to stay there that night, I had no overnight bag packed. This means no clothing, no pajamas and no toiletries. Nada.

Luckily, my Nana always has 10 of every item a person could possibly need. A person closer to her age, that is. She washed my clothes for me so I could wear them the next day. She even ironed my t-shirt and shorts! (God knows I never do that. I’m lucky if my office attire gets ironed.) But this meant I had to borrow a nightgown, robe and undergarments from her collection to wear to bed.

She is my Nana and her house is so clean you could eat off the floor, so I had no qualms about borrowing her clothing to sleep in. There was just one item that gave me pause: the undergarments. She had chosen a beautiful nightgown and robe and was proud to offer me a “fancy” pair of undies that she had never worn because they were too “skimpy” and “high-cut” on the legs. As she held them out to me, it took every ounce of control I had to keep a straight face. There was enough fabric there to construct a revival tent. But, whatever, I thought with a shrug, any port in a storm.

So I dressed for bed and Nana told me she had a spare toothbrush, new in the package. I was glad because it was late, it had been a very long day and I really needed to scrub my fangs before bed. What she hadn’t mentioned was that the toothbrush was made to clean dentures. I would not have cared either way but denture toothbrushes are not intended to go inside the mouth. Despite what you all may think, my mouth is not that big, but I courageously crammed that thing in there and made do because my Nana was looking out for me and I was grateful, darn-it!

The next morning I felt like I had gone to bed in 2010 and awakened in 1982 as my Nana (and my Grampie) fussed over me and worried themselves half to death over whether or not I ate a decent breakfast and how pale I looked. (I am not pale.) I finally relented and had a bowl of Cheerios with banana slices that my Nana fixed for me. She tried to feed me several other things: toast, fruit, cheese, but I told her I prefer a light breakfast. Then she was worried that I probably wasn’t eating enough and might be getting too thin. (HA! As if!)

All joking aside, it was actually really nice to have someone taking care of me for a change. Even though I am a grown woman, with children of my own, it is still nice to know that I’m still someone’s little girl. And that I can totally rock some very large underwear.