Monday, March 31, 2014

You can call me "Mimi"

I've been called a lot of things in my life. My daddy always called me "Baby." (Kind of like Frances Houseman in "Dirty Dancing.") My sister-in-law calls me "Juanzko." (Don't ask!) My godchildren call me "Nina," and my sweet Suzy (who lives next door to me) calls me "Mammie."

I'm Mom to my son, as I was to his sister.

There's a little person on the way who I hope will call me Mimi. We found out in February that our son and daughter-in-law were having their first child! Needless to say, my husband I were ecstatic.

Like everything else in our lives, the moment we found out our little one was coming was bittersweet. For us and our son and now for our daughter-in-law, there is something missing in everything in our lives. It is, as someone wisely said at the time of Lauren's death, our "new" normal.

I held my sweet daughter-in-law's hand across the table with tears in both of our eyes. Those tears were shared by our little family. The tears were tears of joy and of sadness. But one thing we all realized was that this little one coming this year is a double blessing. May 9 will be the 10th anniversary of Lauren's death. Having this baby to look forward to takes a lot of the sting out of this year.

We began to think about how excited Lauren would have been about this baby, and about being an aunt for the first time.

I believe that Lauren knows all about her niece or nephew and that she is rejoicing. We'll find out which it is at the end of next month.

Until then, I will imagine what this little person looks like. I will think about the times when we take our grandbaby to all the places we love: church, the Grove, to visit family, to Disneyworld! I will marvel at my son becoming a father, and his little family growing.

Until then...