THE WIND PHONE
My Two-Year-Old Delivered a Message She Received From Beyond the Grave
And it granted me permission to be happy again
I’ve been grieving the loss of a very important person in my life — my mother-in-law Maryjo — since her unexpected passing last September. I find myself inexplicably holding my breath a lot since then. As if I let go of the tightness in my chest and allow myself to breathe freely, her memory might slip away. While I have remained breathless for the past nine months of turmoil, I never knew how to address Maryjo’s death with my toddler, Joey, so I left the subject lingering.
Joey was a month shy of turning two when her grandma died so I assumed she didn’t remember her. I was shocked when she asked, “Where’s Geema?” out of nowhere a couple of months ago.
I’m not even sure how she knew the word “grandma.” My mother is referred to as “Nana” and, I hate to admit it, but I haven’t talked much about Grandma Maryjo since her death, despite my fierce promises to keep her memory alive with my girls. I’ve been too busy holding my breath and trying to keep my composure.
Joey could only say a few words when Maryjo was alive and “grandma” was not in her limited toddler vocabulary back then. What made her think to ask where her grandma was…
