The time machine

I have been in a time machine.

I have seen years rewind and features refined.

She had Alzheimers and I was "grandma watching".

They called just days after my son was born. Would my husband and I consider living at their home for a week while they went on a trip? We would watch after their kids, send them off to school, and simply maintain a bit of order while mom and dad were away. It didn't seem too bad. Quite easy actually...and to be honest the money they offered was the clincher. Oh and by the way we also have a "grandma". She has Alzheimers. She really is harmless. She kind of just wanders. You will have to explain who you are each day...but no big deal.

With a bit of hesitation and a little reluctantly ...we said yes

So we went. Jared was in school, so I spent my days alone with the baby and "grandma".
Because she couldn't remember from one day to the next, I heard all of her stories...a lot of times. She was a teacher and loved her students. She was a mom and loved her kids. Each time, I would ask her questions trying to get more meat to the stories I had all ready heard.

Being a new mom for me was overwhelming. Taelor and I were getting used to each other. I didn't know how to comfort him or sooth him. (They inadvertently forgot to give me that pamphlet when we left the hospital).

Now here is where the time machine comes in. Did you think I forgot?

One especially hard day, Taelor was really fussy and I was really frazzled. I was trying to make dinner for the kids while holding and bouncing and humming and doing whatever I could think to calm him down (again.,.a simple pamphlet would have been nice...a little bitter).

"Grandma" had been sitting on the couch watching me with that blank look...like she always did. Suddenly, she got up, came up to me and held out her hands.

I momentarily panicked.

She was not in her right mind, could she hold this precious baby without dropping him? What if she didn't give him back? What if she hurt him?

Reluctantly, I handed my son to her.

She was stiff and awkward.

I was nervous

This is where I entered the time machine. That's right. I just jumped in and typed in a year 60 years earlier.

A sudden moment in time came over her.
I could see it in her eyes.
Her whole body relaxed as she gently took my son and the years melted away. She was a mother. She held that baby and rocked him. She did the mom bounce (you know the one) taking her weight from one foot to the other to the other. Taelor calmed instantly falling blessedly asleep in her arms.

Humbly, I blinked away the tears...and stirred the spaghetti noodles.