Tonight, while putting Finney to bed, I thought I’d ask her a couple of questions about people she knows and what she remembers of them when they aren’t right there in front of her.
I thought first to ask her what she remembers about her Bestefar, my own father. She seemed embarrassed by my question and squirmed and said “I don’t know what you mean Dada.”
“I mean like, what colour hair does he have, that sort of thing.”
“Oh,” she said. “He has a high voice.”
“Really?” I said, not remembering this at all myself. “Yes,” she said “and he smells like roses. Also, he’s a vegetarian and a carnivore.” All I could say was “Huh.”
So then it was Murray, Carrie’s father’s turn:
“What do you remember about Grampie?” I asked.
“Well, he’s old” she began “and has ripped pants and” “Wait, ‘ripped pants’?, what ripped pants?” “He has ripped goodnight pants” she said very matter-of-factly. “Oh” I said. “And he has a computer” she added.
Stuff you never knew about your own father and father-in-law.
“Actually, I’m not sure Bestefar smells like roses.”