The Time I Crashed Grandma at the Mall
Luckily for me, she was a good sport about the whole thing
About 25 years ago, right around Thanksgiving, I had a hip replacement operation. Unfortunately, that meant I’d be preparing for the holidays while recuperating. One of my favorite Christmas activities was taking my grandma to the mall so she could shop for people. I couldn’t let her down, so two weeks post-surgery, I loaded my cane and my seven-year-old stepson, Jeremy, into the car, picked up Grandma, and drove up to Woodfield Mall. For the uninitiated, there are about 300 stores at Woodfield, with several levels connected by ramps in addition to the traditional floors accessible by escalator or elevator.
Grandma needed a wheelchair, so we borrowed one from the security desk, and off we went. I used the wheelchair as a substitute cane while pushing her through the mall, and Jeremy tagged along in front of us where I could keep track of him, but he got bored. He wanted to push Grandma — why not? I grabbed my cane, and he started navigating what looked like a pile of bags at that point since Grandma had become part shopping cart and part shopper. He was a natural on a straightaway, but we needed to use one of the longer, curved ramps before too long.
Jeremy and I got the clever idea to go down this ramp while we both held on to…
