"Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice ..."
A North Carolina visit with my daughter.
Of my eleven grandchildren, all but two of them are boys. I love them all, but they are different. Boys are all rough and tumble and we do have a grand old time outside roughing and tumbling, pretending and adventuring …
But little girls are also special and fun to be with. They love doing gentle things and you never have to steal a hug, like you do with a lot of boys.
I remember one visit to my youngest daughter, Heather’s, home in North Carolina. She has three of my grandsons and one of my granddaughters. I didn’t get to see them all that often and my heart swelled with love and pride that I could be there with them, during those moments in time.
Halloran was about five at the time. I was so struck by how much she looked like Heather at five. She was a carbon copy, a clone actually, of her mommy. She even sounded like her and I caught myself calling her Heather a few times that week.
I had a great time with the boys making pea shooters from drinking straws and spit balls from balled up newspaper that we shot at each other. Legos and matchbox cars were always fun, too, and when they tired of being inside, they graduated to hot wheels and bikes outside.
Halloran and I did girlie things: tea parties and My Little Ponies and princess dolls. Then we read books, lots of books ---Lawdy, how that little girl loved books! We talked about fairy tale princesses and handsome princes and spells that were broken with a prince’s kiss.
Then Halloran surprised me by asking what the difference was between a handsome prince and a charming one, like Prince Charming. I had never thought about it before.
“Grammy, what is charming?”
“Hmmm … it isn't easy to say what charming is, but we know it when we’re near it. Charming people have something extra, and we want to know them. They’re just different.”
“But Grammy, what makes them different?”
Charming people know how to be funny.
A charming person is smart and creative.
Charming people make others feel happier when they’re with them.
They make people feel comfortable.
Charming people pay attention and really listen.
When they ask, "How are you?" they really want to know.
Charming people always want to know more.
Charming people always share a Real Smile.
“Grammy, am I charming?
“Yes, sweet Halloran, you have everything that makes a little girl perfectly charming.”
Halloran now:
(a big “I love you” hug)
Poet/Writer/Author of 5 books.
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What a charming young lady!