Time Gone By

My second grandson Sn when he was a year, and a half old.

This time when I went to Peshawar, I retrieved some of my photos to bring back with me. As a grandmother I love my grandsons. Although they are far away in Houston, Texas, I daily remember them in my prayers. The eldest one is not paying attention to his studies, and that is a worry gnawing at my heart. Since I have no say in his life style, I can’t do anything about it, nor can his father — my son.

The only person he listens to his mother. Time is precious, once gone, can’t have it back again. It is slipping fast beyond reach.

Son is holding the youngest one in his lap.

Last Summer

Painful was the last summer I went through

To bid adieus to my grandsons

And my heart yearned

Will there be another summer

For us to be together again

And I looked at the youngest one

I wondered

Will there be the same closeness

Or forgotten

Distances widening in the heart

The fondness gone

Replaced by indifference

The corner he favored

His hiding place

Cushioned with his childhood quilt

A tight place

To find comfort, and escape

From the reality dogging him

And to forget

What was taking place

A broken home —- a rift through hearts

Taking him away from a loving space

Further away from the love he knew

(Sheen-Nov 2018)

I wrote the above in the summer of 2017, but I posted it today. My son had lost his job, and I knew we would have to move from Houston, further away. It was heartbreaking.

Polish

I was back home after an absence of ten months spent with daughter in Michigan. Nola needed me to look after M2 who was at that time one, and a half years old, and M3 who was a new born baby. She didn’t want them in daycare, and I was the only answer to her predicament. 

The day after arrival back home, I gathered up gloves and furniture polish to clean the tv lounge in our home. Beginning with the centre table, I removed the bric a brac lying on top of it, and on it’s lower shelf, and put them aside. While dusting it, I noticed the new grooves, and lines added on it’s surface.

Son’s wife wandered at that moment into the lounge, and saw me at work. She sheepishly explained that the new marks on the table were the handiwork of grandsons H, and Sn. I smiled at her, and said it didn’t matter. I could see that she was amazed at my reply. She expected annoyance from me which didn’t happen.

I knew at that moment that years later those lines would remind me of my grandsons’childhood, and instead of damage they were age lines which enhanced the table.

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DAILY PROMPT

Polish

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Gone Fishing

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I remember the time I wanted to make a cross stitch of fishes. I kept the magazine for a long time, hoping I will have time to make a tapestry. Time went by, and I never got around to it. The magazine got lost in my late husband’s transfers. Now I’m kind of glad that I didn’t make it. What would I have done with fishy eyes? Except to throw it away, and had time wasted on it.

 I did get a night light of fishes moving slowly in one direction for my grandsons, but by that time they didn’t live wth us (my husband and I), and had moved on to US. It’s a colorful display. I climbed to the attic to get it, and dusted it to take a picture.

The real thing is much better than this photo, and the the fishes are in brighter colors.

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DAILY PROMPT

Fishing

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Clumsy

My grandsons were three and a half, and six months old. We badly needed a maid to look after them, and for cleaning and dusting in the house. Beggars can’t be choosers, so the one we got, we bore with her.

Nothing was safe in our home after she ventured in our midst. One had to keep an eye on her all the time so that she won’t break things. It seemed things went out of their way to get broken. 

I remember the time, I had given her a tray full of food to take it to her brother (he was responsible for outside work), and another person, when I heard a crash. Food, broken plates, and glasses littered the floor. I was in a fix. I had to get more food ready to give them. 

She broke so many of my knick knacks. In the end I put those which survived in a safe place, and the few I let remain, I dusted myself. Can you imagine she managed to damage three vacuum cleaners, two toasters, and three irons.

I would wash those dishes, and cups myself which I wanted safe from getting broken. My work load was more than her. 

I am remembering those days. Do you think she is hiccuping now? When someone remembers a person, he or she starts hiccuping— old wives tale. 

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DAILY PROMPT

Clumsy

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Forbidden

My two younger grandsons are here to spend a month with their father, as ordered by the court. So it’s simply heaven here in our home. Masha’Allah! One of the perks of moving to Houston is that I get to see my beloved grandsons.

As I go ga ga over them one thing which irks me is that food get spilled everywhere — on the sofas, tables and carpets. Who does the cleaning? Me! Ofcourse.

With having backache and knees that are yet to recover from my car accident on June 2nd, I have totally forbidden them from eating every where (the new rule has been put in place today). They can only eat at the kitchen counter. Elsewhere is not okay. 

Let’s see how it goes………..

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DAILY PROMPT

Forbidden

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Changes

Whenever I visit my son and his family, I feel I am in Seventh Heaven. The days pass so quickly. There are lots of changes in my grand sons. They are growing up. The elder two, specially the older one is meta morphing into a prickly creature. Both of them are sporting bushy unkept hairdos. To tell you the truth, in my heart I was pretty much aghast, but when their friends visited they looked the same with their hair. I breathed a sigh of relief that my grandsons are not the odd ones out.

The youngest one, IB is still his sweet, sunny self. He loves to perform his magic tricks. Yesterday he put a coin in my hand. Before closing my hand over the coin, he as quickly removed it, and touched my ear. He showed it to me, rather triumphantly, and told me, “See, I got it out of your ear.” I tried to look suitably impressed.

They are standing with me, a few years back.

The elder one as seen from the back now.