A Dedication
My grandson, Zachary, and I had a mini-version of Gramma Cammp©, although I didn't think of it that way at the time. Scheduled and structured for a weekend each month, it was a strategy to stay connected to him, even through his teenage years. It worked and I was blessed.
I picked him up on the first Friday of the month. We stopped for take out pizza or wings, rented a movie of his choice and headed to my house. We spent Saturday mornings together at a favorite coffee shop that featured good coffee and Belgian waffles. Zachary drenched his waffles in butter and syrup, we drank our mochas and we played "Killer Bunnies" or "Uno". It was fast paced and fun. He always won.
We crammed as much as we could into two weekend days. By Saturday afternoons we were often at the mall. Zumiez and Journey were his spots. Sometimes we were on a ski slope snow boarding (well, not me; I waited in the warm chalet and read a good book while he swooshed with a friend). Saturday evenings were dinner and a movie out – or sometimes a play. Stomp, I remember, was a hit! Sometimes, we had tickets to a rock concert. A few decades separated us, but we loved the same music. Together in the car, the radio was tuned to classic rock and the volume at max. Zack once said, “Gramma, your generation had the best music. My generation got robbed.”
I smiled and thought, "Go figure."
Our last day together for another month was usually on Sunday. It began at a different coffee shop and ended when I took him home with a bag of new clothes or new shoes or a new electronic gadget or other. Now and then, his dad would say, “Geez, I think I need a weekend with Gramma.” Zachary responded with his signature giggle. He felt special; I felt, mission accomplished.
This Gramma Cammp© site is dedicated to that feeling and to the loving memory of my favorite grandson, Zachary Wayne Carey.
I wish you were here.
Gramma