Come see about me.

photo taken and shared with permission

"So come on hurry. 

Come on and see about me."

~ The Supremes

_____________________________

The eldest was in her late eighties. And to quote her baby sister, still "in her right mind." That baby sister let me know that she'll "make eighty" this year. "Brother," as they still called him, was there too. Even at just two weeks shy of his eighty-second birthday, as the only boy in a family full of girls, he never shook that nickname.

Two sisters and one brother were there at the bedside yesterday. There to "see about" their sister, who was being cared for on our hospital service. They called her "Sister" since she was the second girl to come along.

Sister is doing much better, so instead of slow singing and flower bringing, I got to laugh out loud and knee slap with Brother and his sisters. As all of us "saw about" my patient.

"You got kids?" Brother asked.

"Sir? I have two sons. Five and a half and seven."

"Brother, 'member how you always used to say 'and a half?'" The Baby Sister laughed.

"Shooooot. He still do!" The Eldest chimed in.

I loved their banter.

"What they doing for the summer?" Brother asked. "Them boys?"

"Actually, they spend a piece of the summer with their granddaddy every year. That's where they are now."

"Awwww, that's wonderful," Sister said from her hospital bed.

I thought about that word. Wonderful. It is wonderful. It sure is.

"And you know, your Pa don't live forever. So tha's good they get some time with they granddaddy like that." Baby Sister smiled in my direction after saying that.

That part made me bristle. I didn't like hearing anyone suggesting that my daddy is anything other than an immortal superhero. I sighed inward and spoke back to her, "Yes, ma'am. Daddy is sixty-eight so I know it's important to savor this time while it's here."

The room fell silent as we all took that in.

Finally brother scowled and said, "SIXTY-EIGHT? Awww hell! He ain't nothin' but a BABY!"

And they all erupted into eighty year-old laughter--all four of them. Knee slaps and all.

This, I liked. The knee slaps, the laughter, the all of it. And also the part about sixty-eight being a "baby" and laughable to suggest that it means you're in the home stretch.

"I loved, loved, loved talking to you all today," I said before leaving. "Thank you for making my day." And that is what I said verbatim because it was exactly how I felt.

"Thank you for coming to see about Sister, hear?" The Eldest spoke firmly.

"And thank you for making us proud, too," Brother said. Then he gave me what was quite possibly the warmest, richest smile that I've ever seen. The others joined right in--smiling at me like they really were proud. In that moment, I could see the striking resemblance between them.

The love in that room was suffocating. But in a good way.

*sigh*

Yep. This is Grady. The Grady I know.

***
Happy Thursday.

And now playing on my mental iPod. . .