Our Children in the Eighties (3)

Grandy and Grammie

Audrey Elizabeth Bales was born on December 26 in Frankfurt, Germany. They were living in Budingen at the time.   I was sitting in my office in the middle of the afternoon, when the telephone rang.  I heard my son’s voice, and his first words were “Hello, Grandpa.” 

Ann was at working at St. Luke’s Hospital.  I turned out to be one of those times when tragedy and celebration took place on the same day. For two or three years Ann had ridden to work with a young lady  named Kathy.  Just before Christmas Kathy came to our house with some things she had baked for Christmas and wanted to share with us.  Her family lived in Dubuque, and she had gone there for the holidays.  She was scheduled to work the day after Christmas, and she headed out for Cedar Rapids early the next morning.  Her car skidded on a piece of ice, and she was struck by a truck.  She was taken to St. Luke’s and she was still breathing, but medical tests indicated that she was brain dead.  Kathy had elected to be an organ donor, so when the decision was made to remove life support, the retrieval team harvested her organs. 

Ann was on the retrieval team, but she could bring herself to participate in the removal of Kathy’s organs.  However, one of her co-workers, wanted to see Kathy before they disconnected life support, and didn’t want to go by herself, so Ann volunteered to go with her.   On the way back to the surgical suite, she was greeted by her fellow employees, who excitedly told her that she needed to call me.  She knew exactly what the call was about before she spoke to me.  She told everybody, “I’m a grandma.”   It was amazing how the cycle of life and death touched our lives on the same day. 

Of course we've never been called "Grandpa" and "Grandma."   From the time Audrey entered our lives, we've always been "Grandy" and "Grammie".

Three months later Ann flew to Germany for one of the grand experiences of her life.  I was a little nervous about it.  A terrorist had shot some people at the Frankfurt Airport, a few days before she left.   I expressed my concern to Elliott.  He said, “Dad, it’s probably the safest airport in the world. You can’t believe how tight the security is.”   Elliott picked her up at the airport and she had about three weeks to spend special time with Audrey.  During that time Ann babysat Audrey while Melanie ran some errands.  Melanie said that Elliott felt like she was asking Ann to do a little too much of that.  Ann said, “You let me take care of Elliott.  I’ve come to spend time with my grand daughter.”  I think that ended any attempt to protect Ann from being overused.