When Mike and I were first looking at houses, it took us a while to narrow down where we wanted to live. During that time, my grandmother's old house was up for sale again. The house had been sold way before that. It was located in Old Brooklyn and the place had been totally remodeled. The pictures were amazing. The neighborhood isn't bad. It definitely wasn't what it used to be, but nonetheless it could be a possibility. I really wanted to go look at it. The thought of seeing it after so many years was fascinating to me. I wondered if it still had the same smell or had anything that reminded me of grandma. Months passed by and we were still trying to figure out where we wanted to live. Eventually, my grandma's old house had been sold. I never got to see it. It made me kind of sad, but I knew that the house wouldn't be a good fit for us. We wanted something with a little more space.
Then one night I had the weirdest dream. Often enough, I do have dreams that take place at grandma's house. Well, this one was a little different. I was in her living room and she was sitting in her usual chair. The house was just like it was when she lived there. The hamburger brown carpet, the old tv stand, the ship on the mantle, etc. In this dream though, my grandma was talking to me. She told me, "Desi, you don't have to buy my house. I'm not there anymore. I'm wherever you want me to be." This dream was so unbelieveably real. I woke up and I remembered it so well. From then on, it never bothered me again that I didn't buy her old house.
When we finally did move to Cleveland Heights, it turned out that I would be living very close to my sister-in-law Kathy. I hadn't seen Kathy since way before her and Paul's divorce. We had begun talking again in the past year or so. She said she lived really close to me and would love to stop by. So she stopped by with her cute daugther Kayla. She brought me a housewarming gift even though I told her I didn't need anything. It was one of my grandma's plants. Kathy explained how in all these years this plant has never died. She said it was a hardy, old plant just like grandma. I couldn't help but laugh because she was right. To this day, it's the best housewarming gift I ever received.
I have plenty of things from grandma yet. I have the ship off her mantle, one of her green ducks, and I still have one of her green pullover coats that she insisted I take. This plant means so much though. It's a living piece of grandma. I can't thank Kathy enough for giving this to me.
