Close to Nowhere

For the first time since she was born, Ruby  June, my 6-week-old  great-grand- daughter came to visit our little corner of Mississippi.

I’ve been up to Olive Branch to see her, but it’s just not the same.

Sunday was wonderful. Meredith and Tim brought Shepard and Ruby June to church and then spent the afternoon at the house.

It was a special day at church anyway. Every second Sunday we have lunch and this Sunday, not only were we having lunch, we were having guests. Just down the road from our church is Free Springs CME Church. We’ve always considered our two churches as sister churches.

One of the other church members is a frequent visitor and has a beautiful voice. Lonnie sang an old spiritual and it was just goosebumpy. Shepard was totally impressed and fascinated with the song.

At lunch, after church, our pastor had brought spicy chicken. Shepard also loved that. He’d eat a bite, suck in a cooling breath and eat some more.

When we got home, Mere and Tim changed clothes and headed outside, supposedly to work, but really to play in the mud. So I had Ruby June and Shepard all to myself!

Shepard adores son Kris, so he came in the living room to visit with Shepard and we just had a fun afternoon. Shepard has learned “what’s that?” so we identified everything in the room 20 times at least each.

He pulled the gate his dad was installing over on his head, he took all the cushions out of the chair and put them back and took them out again. He touched the TV screen constantly with sticky, dirty, little boy hands.

He sat in my lap a long time and we played Zelda, an old video game. He loves it almost as much as I do.

And sweet little Ruby June slept as long as I kept her little bed rocking. Merideth insists that she’s going to be a sweet little girl. I keep laughing and remembering their mom as a little girl and Mere and her sister Remy as little girls. Sweet was not an adjective we used to describe any of them.

But I held Ruby June and we cuddled and she slept, or she took her bottle and we cuddled, and she’s so soft and delicate-looking. And she has these huge blue eyes.

Shepard thinks he can play with her, but of course she’s too little...and way too sweet for a sticky little boy.