This is my first attempt at blogging. It was suggested that this may help with my pain and sadness. This is dedicated to my granddaughter Olivia whom I am not allowed to see.
This story starts over a year ago. My son met a girl. Isn't that how they all start? She was originally from California and had moved to Iowa. She was not an immediate fit with the family and especially my wife. I believe my wife was the first one to actually see through her. I did not. I actually liked her when they first started coming over. Months go by and they stop by the house. They let us know that they are pregnant. Holy Crap! I was so excited. I was telling them that I was available for babysitting anytime. We could make up a room for the baby and we could do this and we could do that and they next said that they were moving to California. I couldn't speak. The air was taken from me. I knew if I spoke I was going to start crying. How can you have the most exciting news and then have it taken away?
They moved to Cali. My son hated it out there. It was hard to find a job that would pay enough to live. They had to live with her parents. He kept calling about how unhappy he was there. We were making plans to travel the 1200 miles in October after the baby was born, and my first grandbaby was born Sept 12th.
We drove out to California in October. Olivia was 3 weeks old when we got there. I loved her immediately. My wife, son, and daughter who also made the trip, had to fight me to be able to hold her. She was and is so precious. We got to meet the other grandparents and spent the day at their home. They are really good people and enjoyed the time we spent with them. We finished our stay with sadness not knowing when we would see our baby and son again.
My son called a few weeks later saying that they were planning to move back to Iowa next in 6 months. OMG! They are coming home! I am telling them I will come out and help move. I will drive a haul, or bring my pickup, whatever was needed. My son tells me that there is no need, he has friends coming to help. I was a little sad and excited at the same time. The next day they are at our door. They were already on the road when they called. I could not contain myself. I was so happy! My son is home and of course my grandbaby is home! Let the babysitting and spoiling begin.
We were watching her every week and usually every weekend. I loved it. She was my bestest buddy. She was like a little monkey with me. Crawling and climbing all over me. She would hardly let anyone else hold her. We played and laughed so much. Her mother would come to pick her up and she sometimes would have a fit because she didn't want to leave. I was so happy. We were so happy.
My son and his girl friend liked to party. There is a lot of he said/she said of everything that happened between them. Alcohol abuse, physical abuse, mental abuse. I know their relationship was not a good one. I know that neither of them were happy. During this time I had just bought a motorcycle. It had been a while since I had had one. We were watching the baby, I had just got done riding, I had the baby in the car seat while working around the yard. My daughter asked if she could take baby out of the car seat. I wasn't paying attention and she crawled to the motorcycle and leaned against the tail pipe to stand up. She got a pretty nasty burn on her hand. Several blisters on her palm. She screamed and nothing I did could make her feel better. I called her mom and told her what happened and she came to get her. She showed up with a friend and was pretty upset. She said she was going to take her to the hospital and that she was not happy with me. I told her I totally understood. I would be upset as well. I said I was very sorry for what happened and she had to know I hurt almost as much as Olivia. I didn't think it necessary to take her to the hospital because all they would do was put burn cream on and wrap it. Which is pretty much what they did. That was the last day I was allowed to see my grandbaby. That was in early July it is now January 22nd. It has been 6 months. I missed her 1st birthday, Christmas as a 1 year old when the box and wrapping paper are more important than the gift.
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