Daddy’s Great Granddaughter and Me

Forrest Jewell

“Oh! Granma! What a wonderful dress!”
“May I?” she pleaded,
Her irresistable smile tugging at my heart
As she lifted the garment in its wrapper
From its storage container.
Oh my!” she exclaimed, gently replacing the dress,
Coming to take my hand,
Lead me to the rocking chair,
Seat me,
Climb into my lap,
And cuddle against me
As she peered sidewise at the dress
And trembled.

I held her — my ten-year-old treasure,
re-definer of childhood
possibly redefiner of human,
Held her and rocked her
And softly sang to her
The songs of her childhood
And, then,
Trying one of the songs of her present
Brought a giggle and
“Granma, you don’t have to sing that song;
“You don’t even like it.”

I kissed her cheek and then her forehead.
I held her away and looked in her eyes;
“Tell me,” I said,
She stood from my lap, took my hand,
And gently led me to the dress.
” Granma,” she said,
“This dress was part of a parachute,
“And a man used it to jump
“From an airplane into a war.”

“Yes, Sweetheart,” I said,
“That was my father;
“He jumped into Holland.
“No one was shooting at them right then
“So he took the time to cut apart
“The parachute and keep a large piece of it;
“It was used to make my mother’s
“Wedding dress.”

My granddaughter somehow visits
Areas of existence that seem closed
To most of us…
“Granma,” she said,
“That was his second time;
“The first time he was shot at;
“Big guns shot at the plane;
“And some hit the plane

“And all those men were scared
“Some of them cried,
“Some prayed,
Some cursed the people shooting at them,
“But the plane was full of the stuff
“That turns a boy into a man
“And some of them
“Joked and bragged and promised to destroy
“Everything that opposed them;
“And Granma, one of them planned to kill
“One of the boss men in the airplane.
“And some of them thought of people they loved.
“Then they sort of fell out of the airplane into the dark
“And guns kept shooting at them
“While they hung ;in the sky
“And when they were on the ground;
“And, Granma, they were mostly
“Just boys.
“They weren’t really grown up yet.”

“Sweetheart, you’re right;
“My father was eighteen.”

“And, Granma, the other people were scared too,
“The people shooting at them.
“Everybody was scared,
“Nobody wanted to be there,
“But they had to try to kill each other;
“That’s so sad!”
She began trembling again
And tears streamed down her cheeks.
“So sad,” she repeated.
“Your daddy kicked open a door

“And was going to shoot

“But the only people inside
“Were a lady
“and an old man
“and 2 kids hiding behind them.
“Your daddy closed the door,
“And went to the next house.
“He felt bad for the people
“But he felt glad he had opened the door
“Because some of the other soldiers
“Might have killed them.”

I sat again and took her in my lap
To hold her until she calmed and the tears stopped.

“Granma,” she said
“There’s a whole energy of war;
“It seems to go
“Almost everywhere people go;
“All those people in my history books
“Are from wars
“And about making better ways
“To kill people
“And they talk about it
“Like it’s something to be proud of
“And it’s not.”

She sort of collapsed then
And fell asleep.
I hugged her
And rocked her
And caressed her back and shoulders.
I hummed her favorite song
Until it penetrated her awareness
And she woke with her delightful
Giggle
And then a whole-hearted laugh
And a kiss for me.

“Granma,” she said,
“I love you and, you know,
“Your mommy and daddy
“Did some wonderful things:
“They took a war thing
“And made it into a love thing
“And then they gave me you.”

Through my tears
I could see her radiant smile
And there was no way
To hug her tight enough.

“But, Granma,” she said,
“After people had one war,
“Why did they ever have another one?”

2 Comments »

1. ? ???? ???-?? ????. ??????? ??????? ?? ?????? ? ???? ???????….

   “Oh! Granma! What a wonderful dress!” “May I?” she pleaded, Her irresistable smile […….

   Trackback by Kylie Batt — April 20, 2010 @ 8:30 am

2. ?????????????? ?????????? ???? ?????????…

   “Oh! Granma! What a wonderful dress!” “May I?” she pleaded, Her irresistable smile […….

   Trackback by Kylie Batt — May 19, 2010 @ 3:42 pm

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.