The Sentimental Gene

     When my first granddaughter, Kaylee, was born, I wondered if she’d inherit an ounce of my sentimental genes. It was hard to tell for sure the first few years. When she was three, she helped an ant across a pool deck onto the grass. Then she jumped in the pool, once he was out of harm’s way. This was a good sign in my book.

When she was four and I’d visit for a few days, we’d both get teary-eyed two days before I had to go to the airport. By the time the actual flight day arrived. it was a bawling session of major proportion. I cried all the way through security and she cried the forty-five minute ride home. I thought I felt a spark of the sentimental gene.

We chatted about his one day when she was five. She was wearing her pink polka dot pajamas. We were propped on pillows in her bed. She looked at me as if she something very serious on her mind. Her bright blues eyes, stared at me as she asked “Gigi, do you feel things with your heart?”

“Yes, I do,” I answered seriously. “That just means we’re sentimental people when we feel things with our heart.”

Just hearing her soft voice say those words brought tears to my eyes.

“Yes, we are definitely sen-ti-men-tal!” she told me, and smiled.

I smiled back through my wet eyes.

“My heart hurts when you go home,” she told me batting her eyes. “My heart does too,” I told her. I just love her tender little spirit.

She is the type of little girl that the world needs now. She got an award for being the kindest girl in her kindergarten class. If someone is sitting alone, she will engage them to join her. She is not only sentimental, she has a huge welcoming heart.

When my husband had a kidney stone, she sent him a small Get Well Soon Bear, wearing a purple (her favorite color) vest, to cheer him up. That bear has a place of honor on his shelf.

I am so blessed to have this little one in my life. She not only warms my heart and makes me laugh, she makes me so proud of who she is. At such a young age, she’s defined herself as kind and gentle.  The world is brighter since she arrived.