2006 was most significant in that it brought the miracle of the birth of my newest grand daughter, who I will refer to here as The Papaya here.
New Years Eve we baby sat for her for the first time she’s been away from her parents overnight. She was a delight, aside from a tiny fuss over going to bed, and once she was asleep she slept from 8:00 PM until 8:30 AM when I went in to check on her to make sure she was OK. And she was fine, of course, just playing with her toys and happy as a lark. I never saw a baby who wakes up in the morning with no crying.
I’ve written about her here before in a few Granny Blog entries. I do child care for her a couple times a week, which I am happy to do in the short term, until my daughter secures a place in her preferred day care. She’s such a good tempered baby, and easily satisfied most of the time, so it makes it easy to have her around.
One thing the Papaya loves is music, and she loves to have someone sing to her. So even though I am always flat, and really can barely carry a tune, I always sing to her when I feed her.
I thought a lot about what I would sing to her. I wanted a song which would be associated specifically with me which would give her comfort.
My mother died in 1994. As adults, we did not have an ideal relationship by any means. As a matter of fact, as soon as I started to become independent in any real way, our troubles began. But I do have good memories of her when I was a tiny child; as long as I was dependent on her, things were fine, she was a great baby mother. She would sing and rock me to sleep. Later, when I was a little older, if I was sick, I would often ask her to sing to me. So now, in memory, these are the moments with her that I try to focus on, not the bad times.
Another thing my mother was good at was being a gramma. She loved her grandchildren and, later, her great grandchildren, and she doted on them when she was with them. She had a little bit of extra special feeling for my daughter, I think, since she was her namesake. So I know my mother would have been especially happy to have known the Papaya, and, of course, she would have adored her.
So when I chose my special song for the Papaya, I decided to choose the song I most loved for my mother to sing to me. I wanted to sing it to her as a sort of legacy from my mother, as a way of remembering her great grandmother. And that song was Redwing, lyrics below. It’s a totally non politically correct song about an Indian maid pining away for her warrior who has died in battle far away. I know, I know. But I can’t change what my mother sang or what my favorite was. And I will explain to the baby when she is older why I chose that particular song because of how much I loved having it sung to me.
So, every time I feed her I sing Redwing to her, and she has already come to expect it. She looks at me while she is sucking on her bottle and after a minute or two, she grabs my lips and squeezes them until I start to sing, and she stares at me while I am singing. And when I come to the chorus she stops sucking and grins a huge grin and milk dribbles down her chin. I can almost die from love every single time. And sometimes I tell her about my mom, and I cry a little because she will never know her. But I am already convinced that she will never forget the song sung to her by her gramma from her great gramma.
For 2007, may we leave the bad behind in the past,take the good forward into the present and look toward the future for new understanding.
REDWING (as my mother sang it)
There once was an Indian maid
A shy little prairie maid
Who sang alay, a love song gay
While on the plains she whiled away the day
She loved her warrior bold
This shy little maid of old
But brave and gay he rode one day
To battle far away.
(Chorus)
Now the moon shines bright on pretty Redwing
The night bird’s crying, the breeze is sighing.
Far away beneath the stars, her brave is sleeping,
And Redwing’s weeping her heart away.
She watched for him day and night
She kept the camp fire bright
And under the sky each night she would lie
And dream about his coming by and by
But when all the braves returned
The heart of Redwing yearned
For far far away her warrior gay
Fell bravely in the fray
(Chorus)
