It's amazing the things that pop into one's head while reading other blogs. This morning, I was reading wiccachicky's blog on scent and it revived a little memory that had been hiding in the back of my head.

My sister and I were shipped off to Portugal in early '87 while my parents finished things up in Venezuela where we'd been living since early '82. It was no longer safe for the family there and my parents were afraid to have us there so they sent us ahead to Portugal and while there, we lived with my maternal grandparents. For over a year, they were mom and dad to us and we, in return, are like their adopted children. To this day, my sister and I have a closer connection to my grandmother than any of the other grandkids because we were the only two born and raised with them.

In '89, my parents moved us here and my grandparents stayed in Portugal. Though they travelled back and forth in six month incriment while my grandfather was alive (he didn't like it here), it was still odd not having them there all the time.

A year after my grandfather died, my grandmother moved out here permanently. There's nothing left for her there other than distant family and all her children and grandchildren are here so now she travels back for 3 months every year to get a feel of home and to check on her house and see friends. Shortly after coming out there, she was at my mom's place one day and she was talking about how lonely it was for her and grandpa after we'd left. One day, when they were turning the mattress in the bedroom that Claudia and I had shared, they found a long stray hair (mine) tucked under the mattress cover. She said that when they saw it, they both stopped and cried. The hair reminded them of us.

Whenever I think of my grandfather crying over something so small, it tightens my heart a bit. Though I loved him, he was not the type to show emotion often and the fact that he cried over something so small, reminds me that regardless of what he showed, he loved us. I can't imagine how I'm ever going to handle grandma's passing. I hope it's not for a long, long long long time.