Bridges
“Gentle, never garish, honey. Remember you’re sending this Thank you card to your grandmother in Tuscon. She sent you a lovely going away gift so just be careful what you write. You’ve only met her once and then you were a sweet five years old. She’s never met you as the wild child you are now.”
“Oh, come on mom. You’ve sent her pictures of me with my pink hair and torn jeans. Surely, she would have figured out that I’m kind of ‘garish’ - whatever that means.”
Melanie was trying to get Jodie to communicate more frequently with her grandmother. Melanie didn’t get to see her very often at all. They had been fairly distant when they lived in the same state, but now they were not even in the same country. Canada had never seemed anything but a land mass on the map before her job had taken her to Vancouver. At first Jodie was angry. Leaving all her friends behind, friends she had grown up with, was ‘absolutely the worst thing in my life and I’ll probably die!’ Once they were settled, Jodie settled. Texting and email and FaceTime made their move seem not so distant. But her grandmother didn’t text, didn’t think she’d like email or FaceTime, so Melanie thought that sending her a card in the ‘really old fashioned way’ (Jodie’s words) might be interesting to them both. Jodie agreed and did seem interested, but trying to get her to sit down and write was next to impossible.
“Mom! Come here! It’s Grandmother!”
Oh no, something dreadful has happened. Melanie was frightened, sure that her worries about their move had come true. That her mother had fallen, was in the hospital. Melanie’s mind revved into high gear as she raced to the kitchen phone. Just as she got to the kitchen, she saw Jodie smiling?
“Come here! Hurry up! Mom’s here Grandmother. She looks all panicked so you’d better tell her you’re ok.”
“Mom! Is that you? When did you …..how did you……”
“Melanie, dear, slow down now. Don’t you fuss at me for spendin’ a little bit of money. Miss Britches here helped me buy this contraption before you moved. There was a workshop at the Seniors Centre and I learned how to use this fool thing. Do you think it makes me look old?”
“Grandmother, you are old! But it doesn’t make you look ancient. Mom, what do you think?”
Jodie was jumping up and down with excitement.
“Well..um...well..ah. I don’t know what to say? It’s wonderful. I was worried that you’d not get to meet each other again. And now, well now I guess I don’t have to worry anymore.”
“Well now, honey, I’m sure you’ll find something else to worry about. Meanwhile this wild child grand-girl of mine will keep tabs on you so I don’t have to worry.”
Grandmother and Jodie had pulled off a huge surprise for two people that barely knew each other. It was all thanks to a deep need to keep family together - and of course, thanks to the technology that created that bridge.
“It’s not faith in technology. It’s faith in people.”
~ Steve Jobs
