13 May Nana, Mum and Mother’s Day
The Rubinator’s little face was all screwed up and bright red, he arrived screaming at the door the mcplayground with tears running down his face. I grabbed, my bag started to get the baby out of the mchigh chair, prepared for a trip to the emergency room, had to be a broken arm. No, no it wasn’t, we had dropped our mchappy meal toy into an unreachable abyss of the playground. In the time it took me to assess Ruben didn’t have a broken arm, Maxamillion had found a new Nana.
It was love at first sight, Maxi was patting her hand and she was gazing into his hazel eyes and getting ready to squeeze his chubby cheeks. We started to chat as you do when you’re in a mining town, everyone talks to anyone. She was from Victoria and had just picked up one of her son’s, his wife and their son (Nana’s youngest grandchild who was playing with the Rubinator) and they flown in as a surprise for the 18th birthday party of her oldest granddaughter. A bit of a shindig at the Bowlie. Only a little one though, they were saving the big one for her 21st.
Nana was so excited. Every inch of her beautiful, soft, smooth skin radiated and her sharp, recently trimmed and coloured, caramel hair shone as she chatted about her family. One daughter, her granddaughter’s godmother, had been unable to make it, she was disappointed about that. Her daughter also lived in Victoria and had a litter of co-dependent Labrador puppies born on April 23 to take care of otherwise she would have been there too. One son was in nearby mining town, the head of a mining services maintenance department, they’d visited him to. As Nana and her family departed it got me thinking.
You have a relationship with your kid’s Nana that you never had with your parents even though they are one and the same. As Nana, your Mum takes on this god like quality to your children and you. They are always happy and never cross or mean. They teach your kids things that you don’t have the patience or the time to do. When they visit they are on 24/7 park, pool and play detail and they never complain. They help out around the house, they give you time to regain your sanity and they listen to your woes. They talk to others about their family with the look of a cat who’s just swallowed the canary.
That time that it took to go from being Mum to being Nana has softened them or maybe it’s just that time that has faded your memories of when you disagreed with them, when you were sure your life as you knew it was over, when you were sure that you had the meanest Mum in the whole wide world. These thoughts all become distant memories because now you have the most amazing Nana and Grandma and they light up your day whenever you see them or you run into a new one at McDonald’s. Just like Maximillion’s new Nana in McCafe.
It was lucky we met McCafe Nana because her grandson had slightly longer arms than the Rubinator and he rescued the motorcycle wielding Teenage Mutant Ninja toy. A crisis was averted and Hayden found a forever friend in Ruben. Happy Mother’s Day McCafe Nana and a Happy Mother’s Day to all.