Another 10 Year Anniversary - Something Old Is New Again

Today is the anniversary of the life changing car accident that my grand-daughter luckily survived. Sunday 4th September is her 15th birthday.

She rang me tonight to chat and I asked her how her day had been. She told me she had found the day a little hard as it was 10 years since her accident. She wrote about it in her school journal and tried to see the positives, like she is still alive. I try and do that too. We could have so easily lost her. Somehow she survived and she tells me that her Grumpy Eddie came to see her so she knew she would be alright. 10 years ago was the day that Grumpy Eddie was cremated, it was the reason she was not with her mother or us, as the funeral service was in a country town. She knows that, but she still believes he came to visit her in hospital - and maybe, just maybe he did and gave her back to us.

I wrote this recycled post in May 2010, it was titled - Excuse The Bragging But A Proud Grandma Lives Here.

A few weeks ago my eldest grand-daughter invited me to attend a drama performance at her high school. Yesterday was the big day.

By the standards of most high school productions, it wasn't the grandest, it wasn't the biggest, it wasn't the most well attended but it sure brought tears to this grandma's eyes and pride to her heart.

As I have blogged before, just before her 5th birthday my grand-daughter was involved in a car accident that left her with acquired brain injury. Through this she suffers from learning disabilities, weakness in one side and epilepsy among other things. She has lots of things stacked against her, but she also has, what I see, as a lot of qualities that other teenagers don't necessarily have. The one that stands out the most to me is her generous and beautiful heart and soul. Yesterday, this was on show for all to see.

Their were only 5 actors in the production, all of them were from the Education Support Centre at the high school. Along with their drama teacher, the students came up with the concept, worked out to plot line, and wrote the play.

The plot was simple, there was a king with 3 princess daughters - each of them was beautiful but conceited and mean. They played pranks on each other, they fought and they yelled. The king was worried about which princess would rule his kingdom when he died - he couldn't see any good qualities in any of them. The king devised a plan and let his daughter's know that he was hosting a ball and whichever daughter showed themselves to be the most noble on the night would be the one that ruled. The daughters continued to fight and play tricks on each other right up to the night of the ball. Then their fairy godmother appeared to tell them to look at themselves as they should be ashamed that they had so much and yet acted as if they had so little. That night at the ball each princess showed the king just how perfect they could be, because they now saw how wrong they had been and acknowledge how much they loved each other. The king was happy and announced that all 3 would rule the kingdom together.

Each of the student actors had very few lines as it was a narrated story with the drama teacher narrating. Each of the princesses had a beautiful costume loaned from the local theatre company. The props were few, the stage dressing minimal. 5 actors performed to the best of their abilities. The audience laughed at the comedy. The audience occasionally strained to hear the spoken lines as the actors were very nervous. There was one princess who acted her heart out, who remembered all her lines and needed no prompting but who also held the hand of another princess when she was too scared to come out, who while standing in the wings quietly encouraged the others and reminded them what to do. That princess was mine.

I know she had made her Mum's life unbearable yesterday morning as she was having a meltdown about the day, but when it came time, she did it, she did it well and she also cared about those performing with her. She didn't get caught up in the 'it's all about me' attitude that so often comes with teenagers and let's face it some adults. She truly made this Grandma's heart proud.