As we await news of Alan's grandmother's death, I have to share a sweet Halloween story in which she & Alan star. Alan was saying goodbye to G'ma Grace after her 105th birthday event in Sept. Because she has to be constantly reminded who people are, he bent down & said "I'm Alan & I'm saying goodbye now Gramma." "Oh, you're not Alan," G'ma said, "you're a girl. You're too pretty to be a boy." Then she reached up & rubbed his face, feeling his whiskers. "Oh, you are a boy," she finally said. Young Julia (9 yrs old?) was sitting close by & began to laugh at the silliness. Alan chuckled too & didn't think too much about it. When he told me later what g'ma had said my heart stopped.
She had remembered him, after all, w/ a very deep connection that went back almost 60 yrs. The words G'ma said in her goodbye were the exact words I had heard her tell me yrs ago as she recounted the Halloween night Alan & his siblings went trick or treating at their house. She said that Alan had dressed up as a girl that year (he was about 5) & when the kids knocked on their door, she had not recognized him. When he told her "I'm Alan," she had replied, "You're not Alan, you're a girl. You're too pretty to be a boy." Now that is a deep path in a brain. What a sweet memory & what a sweet goodbye. Halloween of all times.
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