Most Welcome...

I sit most welcome in her presence.  She sits opposite me with her knees pulled up to her chin underneath the cozy red blanket we bought for her several Christmases ago.  She looks youthful, almost childlike in that pose.  We talk and we talk and we giggle and we hard tease.  And I forget she's my mother-in-law and find her to be a friend.  She has that way with people.  They show up at her door and stay way past bed-time.  She draws people out and we share more than we intended to share.  But that's o.kay.  Because us, our stories?  They are most accepted, most welcomed in her presence. 

When I first walked in the doors of her home, at the young age of seventeen, when she was just the mother of one of my best high school friends, she sat on the floor feeding a litter of kittens with a bottle.  The momma cat died the day before and she was bound and determined to keep those kittens alive.  This instinct to help the "down and out," the "rejected" babes of the world is why all the "troubled" 4th grade students at her elementary school are drawn to her like a magnet.  With her they feel most at east, most accepted, most welcomed.

In just a few weeks Mimi and Grandpa will be here again.  We'll snuggle down into the couch and settle in for a nice, long visit.  I'll pick them up from the airport and we'll purchase a Starbucks coffee on the way home.  Venti with just a little bit of cream.  She will nurse that coffee all weekend long.  And with her we all will feel most welcome....




Linking up with GypsyMama on the prompt "Welcome."  Will you join me?  You are most welcome to participate....