Grandma Henke

I had five children and the oldest was probably about thirteen when our entire family participated in a huge area Dance Festival.    I was running kids to practices constantly for two months and the closer it got to the deadline the more practices there were.      Lynn and I were in two couple’s ballroom type dances and we had separate practices from the ones the kids had.  The last two weeks the practices were held at night and all day on Saturdays so everyone would get used to the football field and know where to sit, where to wait, and how to enter and exit.     They were long, tiring rehearsals.

On top of that there was a huge scramble to make seven costumes out of the slipperiest, brightest material you can imagine.   Thank goodness my friend, Phyllis, helped me with ours or we would have been the only family in normal clothes.    

T he performance was the Saturday before Mother’s Day.   The entire week before we were eating on the run and getting to bed late, and everyone was getting tired and grouchy.    The house was totally neglected plus there were scraps of material and thread all over the living room where we’d been sewing and measuring and cutting.    About every dish we owned was rinsed and stacked by the sink to be washed.    Believe me, it was a mess.

By the time the festival was over Saturday night I was dead tired and yet I knew I had to go home and clean the house before I went to bed or Mother’s Day would be a totally miserable day for me.    As we started for home Lynn told me he wanted to take the kids home and then go back into town for dinner … for my Mother’s Day Treat.     That was the last thing I wanted to do but he kept giving me different reasons why he wanted to go and finally I gave in. 

The kids were whining and picking on each other all the way home and they were so tired they could hardly stay awake.   When we got home we took them in and got them all in bed and then went clear back to town to eat.   All  could think about was all the work waiting for me at home and I was so tired I didn’t even have an appetite..    Lynn is usually a fast eater but that night he talked and talked and it took us forever.  When I thought we were finally finished he insisted on ordering dessert.   I was trying to be happy and show my gratitude but I was so close to crying it was pathetic.   By the time he drove the scenic way home it was well after midnight.    By then I’d decided just to go to bed and forget the dirty house.   I just hoped nobody came to visit us the next day.

The house was all dark when we walked in and when I flipped on the lights I was absolutely stunned.     My house was totally clean.    Everything was put away, the dishes were done, the carpets vacuumed, everything dusted, the bathrooms spotless … and there were my five children all bathed and in their clean pajamas with the biggest grins on their faces you could ever imagine.     

Lynn told me it was all their idea and they’d been working out the details and assignments all day.    His part of it was to take me somewhere and keep me away for two hours.     To completely throw me off the kids had staged their big argument in the car on the way home and their sleepiness when we got there.     As soon as we’d pulled out of the driveway they’d all jumped out of their beds and knew exactly what part of the cleaning they were to do and got right in and did it.    It was absolutely the best Mother’s Day present you can imagine and I think of it every single Mother’s Day and remember those cute little happy faces when I flipped on the living room light.