Related By Choice

RELATED BY CHOICE For my adopted grandmother Nancy Enloe I met you at a friend’s house, standing stately on your cane, tall and rosy-cheeked like me. In your smile, I basked and thought, “Long-lost cousin, could you be?” Like my great aunt long ago, when you learned I love to write, you gave me three r’s of verse: Robert Wash, Service, and Frost, and asked to read my own work. Like my aunt in my childhood, you invited me for swims. In your pool, I splashed and laughed. Like her, you asked to hear me play my organ -the whole grand staff! On a ten-day Rockies trip, Jasper, Banff, and Lake Louise, friends asked if you were my mom. We smiled at that pleasing word like Gilead’s healing balm. One day, as we drove along, you said just out of the blue, that you’d be Grandma to me. As if you spoke my own thoughts, I grinned as wide as you could see. Oh, once we got to be twins in blazers you bought for us. You knitted us two rainbow scarves for walking in wintry air or through the winds on the wharves. You’ve been family to me, all six relations in one. How fun it would be to find on genealogy sites if we’re related for real. No matter! It feels just right!