An Evening with Gramma & Carol - 14 July 2015

My Grandmother, Adeline Elizabeth, as a teenager.

I am so grateful for dreams! To be taken back to a place where the people you love the most are with you and interacting in familiar, and yet sometimes very different ways, is like a tonic for the soul.

I am a prolific dreamer. I think I dream most nights and like everyone else, some dreams are better than others and therefore not forgotten before eyes are fully focused in the morning. I dream in full colour and minute detail and the best dreams stay with me for a long time until it begins to fade. Because I listen to CBC all night, dreams will often interact with whatever news report in playing at the moment and it can make for some very interesting dream scenerios.

This week is my cousin Carol's birthday and she's been on my mind.  I've been thinking of her and how I'd like to have her family here for a dinner or find a way to celebrate her special day. Perhaps that's why I dreamt of her last night. I'm not sure why Gramma was there and I'm not good at analyzing dreams but I woke up feeling so wonderful having spent that time with her. It was a Dream Gift.

Here goes.........

I walked into Gramma's house (her house but 'different') and found Carol giving all four of my grandchildren a bath. They were splashing and making quite a racket but I still felt so happy at seeing them all in one place at one time. The girls' hair had been shampooed and I clearly noticed the long tendrils down their backs and heard their happy laughter.

I had the impression that we were preparing to go somewhere and I remember there was snow on the ground.  My Grandmother started to talk to me about the importance of the agreement with Iran to limit nuclear technology/weapons and throughout our conversation I thought about how beautiful she looked despite her age. She had no wrinkles and seemed so vibrant and happy. I absolutely gave no thought to the fact that she was discussing current events, which she would never have done except in Dreamland.

Gramma put on her brown mink coat and as in real life, she almost disappeared into the fur. As she, Carol and I got to the front door I glanced down and saw a small skunk. It jumped up and clung to the front of my coat and began climbing up towards my face. I became consumed with getting out the door and brushing it off before the inevitable happened and the smell would be terrible. As the skunk got closer to my face I pushed through the door and brushed it away onto the ground. Looking up I noticed Carol taking a photo of me and asked why she was doing it. All she said was that she wanted to make sure she had a photo with the skunk in it.

And there endth the dream.

The dream itself is less important that the memories it conjures up and the deep feelings it refreshes. Carol and I, along with our other cousins, share an intense love for our Grandparents. Our Grandmother was quick to hug us and was infinitely patient with us...except when it was time for her nap. She was extremely private and it wasn't until we were much older that we discovered some of the events in her life that created such unhappiness for her and answered our adult questions about why she did/said some of the things she did. Carol and I talk about her often and reminisce about her quirks and quarks. While last night's dream was less about what we knew to be obvious about her, it may have been more true about the way she would have liked to be...she was absolutely born before her time.