PSLE: Grandma's Cloud Games

I worked hard picking that bouquet of wild flowers from the field at the back of Grandma's house.  When I presented my gift to Grandma, she smiles and hugged me.  "Oh child, you warm the cockles of my heart," she said.

"You have cockles in your heart, Grandma?”

She laughed.  Grandma smelled like vanilla and coffee. I remember the first time we made cookies from scratch. I thought one of the cups of stuff she put into the bowl was “scratch”.  She explained, “There are two kinds of cookies; store-bought and scratch.”

Grandma had a secret recipe and it was magical because it did not matter if we put in raisins or nuts or chocolate chips in the batter, the cookies always tasted like heaven. Grandma gave me her secret “scratch” recipe and I kept it in my wooden treasure box under my bed.

I also had a four-leaf clover, framed and kept in my box. We had spent two hours crawling around on our hands and knees in her backyard looking for that four- leaf clover. We held hands and danced in a circle when I finally spotted one. I ran forward and. plucked the treasure from the base of its stem and held it aloft. 

Grandma had what she called a "bottomless" candy dish - a little open glass dish stationed on a coffee table in her living room near a window with a flowing lace curtain. I could eat candy in the afternoon and after dinner in the evening.  The next morning, the candy dish was full again. It was filled to the brim with mints of all colours that with minimum sucking would sweeten the palate and send a hand plunging inside for more.

However, whenever I offered Grandma a mint, she would laugh and say, "Excessive sugar for a senior can turn a managed waistline into a glob of pullout fat in a short amount of time.

Grandma's porch swing was my favourite place in the whole world. I would lean against her and pour out my woes without a care in the world. This was my most treasured moment. Sometimes, we found pictures in the clouds as Grandma gave the swing a nudge once in a while with her foot.

Once Grandma told me, "Someday when I'm living with the angels, you look up into those clouds and say hi to your old grandma, okay?"

I was never worried about that day.  That was two months ago. Mum and Dad were in the house packing Grandma's belongings. I sat on Grandma's porch swing and gave it an occasional push with my foot. The backyard was quiet and there was no laughter.

A white fluffy cloud moved· across the sky directly overhead. I looked up, remembering our "pictures in the cloud" game. The wind shuffled the cloud as I watched. I saw Grandma! There she was! Her wings were spread wide and her white dress was falling in folds round her feet.  She had a happy smile on her face!

"Grandma, I love you," I called out I knew she was there. She just did not need the old house and all the stuff in it anymore. I saw her gently wave. Smiling, I spread out, on the porch swing to watch her as she floated across the sky.

Adapted from: Rogers, N. (2000). Grandma's Cloud Game - Chicken Soup for the Preteen Soul