By Camden Rose

My grandparent’s house is in the middle of the woods,

has spotty cell coverage,

and has an internet that only

works when you are within

five feet of the modem,

yet I look forward to every visit

because each visit is filled

reading on the front porch,

hands covered with dirt from

the vegetable garden,

strong scents of home cooked meals,

and silent observation of birds and bears

and sometimes squirrels that all

try to nibble off the bird feeder

placed right outside the kitchen window.

It’s filled with wrinkly hugs

and soggy kisses and

a love that I will never understand

until I have grandkids of my own–

and even then I’m not sure

if it will make sense.

It’s filled with banana pudding,

vegetable quiche, pimento cheese

sandwiches, lasagna made with

thinly sliced squash, and

handfuls of Cheerios for the days

when the recipe’s cook time

was longer than we expected.

It’s filled with stories of when my mom

was young and dating a young man

named Sam–or was it Tom?–and

my PopPop made sure to show

the young boy his gun collection

on the first date. Stories about

when I used to come up

and sing songs

I can hardly remember now

into the tape recorder.

Stories about that one time

my mom got hit by a deer on the way,

waking me up and damaging the car,

leaving PopPop to Frankenstein the

old Volvo back together with some

parts he found near his punch-buggie

collection in the woods.

Stories about my grandma

and her amazing cooking, about the

time we made vegetable stock out

of her compostable veggies and

some salted water. Stories about when

she took my mom and her brother to

a different church than my PopPop

every week so that my mom and uncle

would know what it was like to be

a normal church member instead of

the Preacher’s Kid. Stories of when

my mom was young and my uncle even younger.

My grandparent’s house is filled

with unconditional love and

an appreciation for life that

lasts through health

and sickness.

For those of you who don’t know, my grandma was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer a few weeks ago. Currently, she is going through chemo. To find out more, visit her CaringBridge page here.