*Originally posted April 2020

As you know, Babcia was recently hospitalized with suspected COVID-19 but is negative, home now and doing much better. She’s back to her sassy self. She’s watching Days of Our Lives (when someone isn’t on TV talking about Coronavirus and interrupting her “shows”, which really yanks her chain), she’s back to playing with and alternately arguing with Sophie, the youngest wnuczka. She’s back to worrying about all of us as opposed to all of us worrying about her, which is how she prefers it. She’s back to being a salty sailor. We couldn’t be happier.

She told me about how she was saying to Sophie one afternoon how they were going to be sorry if they didn’t stop talking about the virus every day at the same time her shows came on, to which Sophie replied, “You know they can’t hear you Babcia”. Babcia answered, “I know”, defeatedly. This has become their relationship in a nutshell. They both fly off the handle occasionally, they both get worked up. they both say they’re sorry and they both love each other bigger than life. Babcia waits on Sophie and makes her favorite lunches and snacks. She feeds her every hour or so because that’s what Polish Babcias are good for. In the past when I’ve either taken Babcia grocery shopping, or when I’ve gone for her, she tells me specifically which brands I have to buy because that’s what Sophie likes. If it isn’t the exact brand, package, or flavor, it’s a major catastrophe that must be corrected. Sophie is never told, “Well that’s all we have so eat it”…. which is odd because I remember being told that a few times so I know for sure that Babcia knows how to put those words together in sentence form. Every picture drawn, every popsicle stick sculpture, every homemade slime ball, they’re all works of art and must be kept, usually on the dining room table. In reality, it isn’t Babcia’s house, it’s Sophie’s house and we all know it.

They stick up for each other. They can say what they like to each other but God forbid anyone else speak up and challenge either of them, they will come together into a force to be reckoned with. Sophie MAKES you be nice to Babcia, and Babcia MAKES you be nice to Sophie. Sophie is Babcia’s little caretaker. If Babcia eats one too many pieces of bread, Sophie rats her out. If Babcia has chocolate bars hidden in a drawer, Sophie informs her mom. If Babcia hasn’t been walking enough today, Sophie casually brings it up in conversation with her dad. Sophie also will drop everything to run to the mailbox and collect the mail, to grab the newspaper, to get something from another room or across the room, or to give Babcia a big hug. As Babcia says, “one hand feeds the other”.

It’s no wonder they have this symbiotic relationship. They spend most days together. Babcia told me on the phone last night,”I always know Sophie will be here at some time during the day”. (Wait, was that a jab at me? Hmmm… yeah, most likely) And yes, Sophie always shows up. Babcia said, “I don’t know why but she always wants to come over”. I had to laugh out loud at that one. Why? Why?!? If I had a place to go where I could do whatever I liked, where every thing I said or thought was taken as gospel, where my every desire was fulfilled, where they served my favorite foods all day long, then yes I’d probably want to go there too. But it’s more than that. I know because my daughter, the original wnuczcka, got the same thing from being with Babcia. The reason they love her, the reason they love being with her, is that she makes them feel like the most important person in the whole world. They are talented, they are smart, they are beautiful, they are funny, they are bigger than life. They are loved in abundance no matter what they may do. Babcia will always stand up for them, defend them, love them, and forgive them. That is what all children need. They need that unwavering kind of love to build their little ego and to send them forward into the world full of self confidence and a knowledge that they are special. Lindy grew up knowing that and now Sophie is growing up knowing it as well, because they have a Babcia.