I was at a hospital yesterday, and stepped aside to allow a middle aged woman and her father in a wheel chair through the door before me.
The woman paused to thank me for my “gentlemanly manners” and hollered at me “I hope you raise boys”.
At first I was like “is she THREATENING me?”
‘I hope you raise boys’ doesn’t have the greatest connotation for me being that my brother was SUCH a shit to raise for my Mum and Dad. (I now know he reads this so I hope he gets a thrill from the notoriety if the nausea from my previous post hasn’t killed him!)
Once I got over the paranoia, that moment really touched my heart. What a lovely compliment. The most influential role a woman will have in an individual’s life is as a mother, and to wish me the honour because she thought I would do well both terrified and thrilled me.
That same evening, having had a rough day, I was heading home to a lonely house when I thought I would pop in and see friends of mine who have transitioned from the equivalent of colleagues with our involvement in community activities, to feeling like family.
If I’m ever feeling overwhelmed by the world I head to their place with three kids and more love to spare. There are always cuddles to be had, great conversation, an open door, and SO many toys to play with. Plus the kids love hearing stories and I love reading them. Heaven.
So I turn up there in the middle of mayhem hour (you know it mums and dads!) and they welcome me with open arms and plonk their littlest guy in my arms and ask me if I want to be a godmother.
I had just squashed a butterfly with my car and was convinced I was bad voodoo.
As I started crying with the overwhelming emotions of it all, Godbaby decided to join in.
I’m sure we were a delightful picture. Runny eyes and scrunched up red faces both of us.
The answer was yes and then I paused and looked at them.
“But I’m an atheist. Does that make me exempt?”
Apparently I still qualify on account of my coolness, storytelling abilities, and the fact that they want ‘a role model who will be involved with their family for a long long time.’
Oh crap, now I’m crying again.
One of my top twenty life moments.
Now, all I have to do is figure out what this gig is about...
Thursday, March 17, 2011
2 comments:
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Congrats! I'm going to out myself here, but as a catholic mother, when choosing the god parents for my children the last thing I considered was their religion. It's more about choosing people who share similar values to you and who you trust to be there for your kid if for some reason your kid feels unable to come to you.
ReplyDeleteEssentially it's just saying you are family and we love you so much we trust you and want to you to be a major part of our kids life.
So relax and enjoy. You will be a fabulous Godmother!
(PS. I loved yesterday post. I just forgot to hit send on my comment....and was too lazt to go back and do it again!)
Happy Godmotherhood! So incredibly freaking cool. Funny thing is, I came here just after reading the News with Nipples blog about motherhood - http://newswithnipples.com/2011/03/17/the-blind-pimple-of-fairfax/
ReplyDeleteI find the idea of parenthood so exhilirating (easy for me not being a parent) but always loved the uncle thing - getting the joys of having children in my life but the ability to give them back again.
I never used to like kids. Might just be maturity, but I can track the change in my life to a specific point. Weirdest of all, it was the film Mannequin. I know I changed after that movie. Maybe it was the idea that a creative loser can find his place in the world, that there is something amazing within that just needs the right environment to come out.
But shortly after that, I visited relatives in Rotorua and my cousin's children were there. I absolutely loved playing with them, and they loved having me there. I was just lost in the moment.
But wow - I am really just so happy for you. It speaks volumes about the amount of respect they have for you.