She threw me out this evening.
“Out Mummy, stand over there”.
I explained it was bed time and that once she’d given Granby her goodnight kiss we had to go up to sleep.
“No, go way Mummy, Hopey sleep here”.
She lay stretched out on her Grandmother’s bed right beside her.
“Hopey sleep in Granby’s bed. Hope love Granby, go way Mummy”
It was a bit of a shock, and I felt sad for all of 3 seconds and then I laughed, alot, and just stood and watched them, lying side by side looking up at me, over 80 years between them. Hope and Granby. Granby and Hope … a gang.
I shrugged and turned off the light, there was an uncertain silence … my mother clearly wondering if I was going to leave her with a toddler as a sleeping companion and Hope wondering where she was going to find her milky if she woke up in the night. I turned the light back on and lay down beside my mother, I gave her a kiss, reached out and found Hope’s little hand. I picked her up and we waved goodnight to Granby and headed up to bed.
Hope took a little longer to settle than she normally does and she did ask (several times) if Granby was sleeping. The last thing she said before she too nodded off was, “OK Mummy, Granby sleeping outstairs, Hopey sleeping as well”.
