Monday, March 11, 2013

A Grammy's Influence


By Andrea Boeshaar


In early February I had the most wonderful visit with my son, daughter-in-law, and my fabulous grandkids in upper Michigan. My son is a pastor at a church in a small community on Lake Superior. In the summertime, the tiny town is thriving with vacationers and fishing enthusiasts, but in the winter it's frozen and quiet.

My daughter-in-law home-schools my granddaughter who's 7 -- 7 going on 16. There aren't many other little girls at the church they pastor and my son mentioned that Anna really needs friends with whom she can talk and giggle. She's really struggling at times with feeling isolated. She goes a lot of places with my daughter-in-law and participates in some of the ladies' activities. But for Anna it's not the same and she misses her friends in Milwaukee.

On Saturday, I attended a Bible study that my daughter-in-law leads once a month at a quaint coffee house. My daughter-in-law did a great job -- and what a great place that coffee house is! With its rustic motif, books, and photos from local artists along with the perpetual smell of freshly brewed java, it's one of the most inspiring places I've entered in a long while. 

My granddaughter, Anna, came along, but got antsy halfway through the study, so she and I walked around. I told her about the books I write and how I get my stories. She asked numerous questions and I answered them. We looked at some chapter books for her age group and suddenly...suddenly a spark entered her blue eyes.

"I'm going to write a book, Grammy. Like you!"


"Go for it." I smiled. My granddaughter is full of big ideas -- like getting her own cell phone. 

"And I'll be on the cover, okay?"

"Sure. It's your book." My smile grew.

We got home that day and Anna set to work. She wrote an entire notebook page -- the first page of her book. I typed it up on the computer and, you know what? Her story is pretty good. It's about a little girl who's getting bullied at school by a mean girl named Melissa.

During my visit, Anna wrote two more pages. I hope she'll continue writing her book because this grammy can't wait to see it in print!

1 comment:

Lena Nelson Dooley said...

I love this story!!

When my 25-year-old grandson was in first grade, they each did a book. When James and I went to Grandparents Day at his school.

He pulled me over to see his book and proudly announced. "I was the author and the illustrator for my book."