I Meet My In-Laws

Here I was in British Columbia visiting my in-laws for the first time. It was 1949. We had traveled by plane, ferry and finally bus to get here, but the two toddlers, my husband and myself finally arrived with only a few mishaps along the way.

Grandma James lived with this family as she couldn't take care of herself. She was in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's, but there wasn't yet a name for it. It was usually called, "second childhood". She was on a waiting list to get into a government nursing home.

We were sitting at the kitchen table one day having coffee, and had invited Grandma to come out of her bedroom and join us. I asked her, "How old are you Grandma?". "Oh, about 35." she answered. In reality she was 82.

One afternoon she packed two shopping bags with some of her clothes, put on mismatched shoes, and sat waiting for "someone" to come and take her "someplace". Of course, no one was

coming for her, but she wanted to get away from these strangers (us) who had invaded her home.

My husband stayed up later than I did in order to visit with his family. We were given the big bedroom with a double bed and a single bed. Considering that the original house had burned to the ground a few years before and was not insured, this was a very nice comfortable house they had managed to build. I took the big bed for myself and the two toddlers, as mother-in-law hadn't thought of borrowing a crib for my youngest. My husband then had to take the single bed. So I put the kids to bed and locked the bedroom door and went to sleep.

I was awakened by a pounding on the door. I got up and let my husband in. He was upset!

"Are you afraid of my family?" he demanded to know. I informed him that his mother, in one

of her saner moments, advised me to lock the door because of Grandma.

"Well, we aren't locking any doors in this house!" the boss exclaimed.

And with that, he crawled into his little bed and fell asleep.

Some time later he was awakened by a little old lady trying to climb into bed with him!

Of course, it was Grandma.

You can be sure he always saw to it that the bedroom door was locked from then on.