Touch

 

My grandmother was very old and had lost her vision. I had been her pet since I was born. After my marriage and child birth, I had not seen her for over a year and half. I came on a holiday with my fifteen-month old son and went to see her. She was happy to hear my voice and asked me if I was happy and healthy. Then when I told her that I had brought Jai to meet her, she put the little boy on her lap and touched his face, nose, ears and read his appearance. And she commented that he was a child of the clan as he had the distinctive nodule on his ears that was a characteristic feature of my paternal family. 

My granddaughters, Jai’s girls, visited me last weekend. The little one Madhura had gone to sleep when we were visiting my sister-in-law. When she woke up it was time to leave and she got on to my lap in the front seat of the car. I had one of those wet towelettes that airlines give you in my bag as I had traveled by plane recently. I gave it to her to freshen up as our next stop was another family visit. She happily took the scented tissue and took her time nicely cleaning up her face. Then she said, “Patti, feel my face. Is it nice and soft now?”

Four generations—and the ‘touch’ still plays an important part of our interaction.

Welcome to the Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where Anu, Ashok, Conrad, Delirious, Gaelikaa,  Grannymar, Magpie11, Paul, Maria the Silver Fox, Rummuser , Will Knott, Shackman and I write on the same topic. Please do visit the linked blogs to get  different flavors of the same topic.