by S.E. Ingraham

Created on: October 18, 2009

I'll never forget the night we found out we were about to become grandparents.

We met with our two daughters and their husbands at our favourite family restaurant, as is our usual Friday night habit.

Over steaming platters of seafood lasagne and spaghetti with meat sauce, we spent time getting caught up with each other, finding out how our busy lives were unwinding, and making sure we were all very much in touch with the highs and lows each of us had experienced since the last Friday dinner.

I can't speak for the rest of the family but I didn't suspect a thing. The evening seemed like every other Friday night dinner with the kids, to me. As always there was lots of laughter, stories, and talk of all manner of things, plus the occasional lull in conversation as we tucked into our delicious food.

Between the main course and dessert, and while we waited for our coffee, our eldest daughter plucked some small white envelopes out of her purse. She handed off two to her husband and then, before they passed them out, she said,

Nobody open these until I say...

We all received what looked like an invitation of some sort in a blank white envelope. Then our daughter, as if announcing the start of a race said,

Okay - now!

Totally puzzled, I opened my card and stared at the purple and green stripes on the face of the card for a moment before I realized what was written over the stripes in thick black marker.

Grandma

What? I remember thinking, foolishly, but I'm not a grandma...

And then of course, it hit me, just as it was hitting my husband with his Grandpa card, and my other daughter and her husband with their Aunt and Uncle cards

We were going to have a new member of the family soon; inside the card were the details of the expected date of arrival, a long six months ahead.

What a rush!

Our daughter got pregnant on her honeymoon so this was pretty unexpected, I guess you could say.

However, she was not a really young bride, twenty-seven is not considered old by any means, but it's not as if she was a teenager is what I'm trying to say.

I think the happy parents were as surprised as any of us, but just as thrilled too.

Then came the one question I hadn't thought about, What do you want the baby to call you?

This from our other daughter who likes all the i's dotted all the t's crossed.

I drew a blank for a moment, I admit it. What was she talking about? Then she reminded me of long-ago conversations.

Remember how you used to

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