CHANNELING ROSIE

Talked to my friend Mrs. H. yesterday, and we’re trying to get together for lunch later this week. Mrs. H. is a fairly new friend – 89 years old, fighting cancer, true Texas woman and quite interesting. It’s a friendship that’s had some surprising twists.The friendship itself began in a surprising way.

Cole and I took the Super Shuttle to the airport for our trip to San Diego in August (notice that I said “trip” not “vacation” because when is it ever a vacation with just you and your only child?) It was about 5:30 a.m. when we got on the blue van, and there was a woman already on the shuttle.

This is where I started channeling my grandmother Rosie. She was always chatty with strangers and made many friends that way. So, sure enough, there I was at age 39 acting just like my grandmother. We start visiting (her name is Ann), and I find out she is in town to visit her mother who is fighting cancer. There is no other family in town, and Ann has to get back to her life in Washington, DC. She tells me her mother is at a nursing home that just happens to be along the same road that I travel about 22 times a day hauling Cole to and from school, sports practices, meeting his dad, etc. I told her I’d be glad to check in on her mom for her. We exchanged e-mails and then schlepped our way through the airport to our flights.

A week after I returned from San Diego, I headed to the nursing home for a visit. Mrs. H. was on the phone, and she motioned for me to sit on the bed. When she finally got off the phone, she looked at me and said “who are you?” Not sure my explanation made sense.

On my next visit, she mentioned her ranch in East Texas, her real estate investments (including a condo overlooking the ocean in California) and then how she and her husband had lived in Washington, DC, for a number of years because her husband was appointed to a position by three different presidents. What??

A quick Google search that night led me realize this wasn’t just some random, pitiful woman I was befriending. Her husband had been assistant attorney general of Texas and eventually was appointed as head of the Interstate Commerce Committee for the U.S. I also think she and/or her husband served on the Board of Regents for the UT system. Humility, meet Laura. Laura, meet humility. Here I was thinking I was so good to “stoop down” and befriend a poor old lady.

Poor old lady my a#$@! Two weeks later, once she was released from the nursing home, I found myself enjoying a lovely lunch at “The Club” (as in “the country club”) with my new friend. Who would have guessed?

Mrs. H. wants to take me to lunch at La Madeleine on Friday if she doesn’t have to get chemo on Thursday. Rosie would be proud.