A Summer to Forget

My Grandma & Grandpa Wager moved to Florida a couple of weeks before my fourth birthday. Before that, they lived a couple houses away from us. If it were a city, the distance would probably be measured in blocks, in which case it would have been about a block to their house.

Mom went back to work once my sister was in school. Mom worked at the bank in town. In the summer, we would go to Florida to stay with Grandma and Grandpa. They would drive up in their big Mercury. Sometimes they drove all the way to NY, sometimes Mom & Dad drove down to Virginia to meet them. I don't remember when we left; but I remember being home for the 4th of July parade, so we must have gone to Florida after that. We usually stayed until the end of August; when we'd either drive back to Virginia to meet Mom & Dad, or our Aunt would fly us home to NY. I remember spending every summer of my childhood in Florida, but in reality, there were only a couple of summers that we did this, because once Grandpa started getting sick we didn't go down anymore. One summer, our trip was cut short.

It was a Wednesday. I remember this, even more than 20 years later. I was 8 or 9, I think. I know it was a Wednesday, because the memory that is stuck in my mind is of my sister and I in the bathtub in the middle of the afternoon. On Wednesdays we went to the Farmer's Market, then we went to the beach. On the way home from the beach, we would stop for lunch at Hardy's. Our routine never varied. Farmer's Market, Beach, Hardy's. We would carefully pump ketchup into the paper thimble sized cups at Hardy's. I don't know that I've eaten at Hardy's at any other time in my life; but for a few summers I ate there every Wednesday. When we got back to Grandma's house, Laura and I were ushered into the bathtub to wash the sand off us. Grandpa usually hosed down the car (and sometimes vacuumed it). And so, this is how I know our world turned upside down on a Wednesday.

We were playing in the bathtub, and the phone rang. It was Grandpa's doctor, and he wanted to see Grandma & Grandpa at his office right away. My Aunt wouldn't be home from work for a couple of hours. Grandma got us out of the tub, and asked their neighbor Jean to come sit with us. She didn't really have time to tell Jean what was going on, and she didn't have time to call my Aunt. We sat in the Florida room watching TV with Jean. Aunt Arlene came home and didn't see Grandma's car, so she was surprised to walk in and hear noises in the house. Shortly after she came home, Mom called. I remember there was a great deal of confusion because no one really knew what was going on.

I don't remember all the specifics. Grandpa was sick. That is what we were told. Somewhere I heard the word 'Cancer'. I didn't know what it was, but the way it had all the adults panicked, I knew it wasn't something good. Grandpa went straight to the hospital that day. Mom & Dad loaded up their car and made the long emergency trip to Florida. When they got there, we opened the trunk to unload their suitcases, and it was full of shoes. Mom was so upset, she threw in every pair of shoes she could find- including boots. We all laughed at that-it was a break in the solemnness we were experiencing. Laura & I went home with Mom & Dad. I don't remember what we did the rest of the summer; I know we had only been in Florida maybe a month. That was the last summer we spent in Florida. Grandpa would live another 15 or so years; but after this summer his health was always more fragile.

When I started this post, I intended it to be a happy memory; not a sad one. But I think this is the story that had to be told today.