9/12/12

A New Love
By Alison Bennett


Tessa waved an emotional goodbye as her son Robert and daughter in law Lulu drove off. She insisted on maintaining it nervously until they were at the top of the road and eventually out of sight. Today, after 42 weeks, her Grandchild was making its debut into the world.

As she came back into the house she spoke to Barley and Bruce, her two Springer’s and told them: “soon boys, we will have some news.” As she pulled out the chair and sat at the dining table her whole body started to shake and she began to cry. It was strange a kind of half-fearful and half-excited reaction to what was about to be.

As she looked out of the patio window into her well kept garden, she saw a butterfly and thought of her mother, who had been dead for about two years. She knew that her mother would have loved to have seen the baby.

Tessa thought new life brings with it so many emotions. She realised that although she was nearly fifty years old she often felt quite childlike herself, then she remembered the birth of her own three children, Anna, Robert and Claire and how it felt like only yesterday.

Tessa herself had a bad childhood at the hands of a violent and controlling father and her formative years were not happy ones. Eventually her Mother found the courage to leave and Tessa was brought up with her Grandparents. It was during this time that she developed first hand, an understanding of that special relationship that exists between a grandchild and a grandparent.

She looked at her clock and thought they will be arriving at the hospital now. She felt so helpless at this most stressful time, waiting, hoping and praying. She never took anything for granted. She knew that even in this day and age birth still carries a certain amount of risk. Tessa really hoped that Lulu would not have to endure too much pain, but knew that she almost certainly would, as that is just the way the birth process works.

Tessa poured herself a glass of Cranberry Juice and went and sat in her garden. It was the same garden that the children had grown up in. She tried to visualize how it used to be, the little vegetable patch that was Anna’s own special garden, the sand pit under the shade of the apple tree where Robert spent many happy hours digging, and then a bit further down the garden path the old swing that Claire went on every morning before she could even cope with the idea of going to school.

Happy times, but Tessa knew that it was crucial to give them a stable and loving home, all the things that she never had. She also knew that being a mother was the most important and privileged job she would ever do and hoped that she had done it well, well enough for the same priorities of love, compassion and understanding to be passed on now from one generation to another.

It was now lunchtime, but Tessa didn’t really feel hungry. It had got quite hot outside, so she came back into the lounge and started to look on her bookcase at the family photos. There they all were, all the people that meant something to her, all of them living with her at some point, even her grandfather who she nursed for years after he had a stroke and until he died in her arms at 91. Her Mother, the most beautiful woman, smiled down on her. There was a lovely photo of Dan, Tessa’s husband, her rock and the sure foundation of how she had chosen to build her life.

The phone rang and Tessa jumped. Was this the news she was waiting for? She took a deep breath and picked up the phone.

“Hi Mum, its Anna. Any news?”

Tessa replied: “Hello my Love. No, not yet. I was just looking at a photo of you and Claire when you were little and thinking, they will soon be Aunties.”

Tessa realised that with the new arrival everything would change, everyone will become another generation, everyone will be someone different to what they were before. Time will move on and nothing will be the same.

Just as Tessa sat down to stroke Barley and Bruce the phone went again. This time it was Robert. His voice was breathy and excited and he said: “Mum, you have a Grandson.”

Tessa’s heart raced and a silent tear came down her flushed face, “Is he ok Robert?” She asked apprehensively. “He is fine. Do you want to come and see him?”

Tessa grabbed her bag and drove off in her Range Rover. She picked Dan up from work on the way. As they entered the Maternity unit one of Tessa’s old workmates, Jane, who was a midwife, came up and gave her a hug and said “Congratulations Grandma, Ill take you to see him.” The three of them walked very briskly up the corridor right to the end and into a private room that overlooked the chimney tops and spires of the old market town.

There he was. Lulu sat up in bed smiling and holding the new arrival. Tessa and Dan looked down and just stared in complete silence at him, the emotion of the moment washing over them, they then looked at each other through teary eyes in almost disbelief.

Although it was the first time she had ever met Matthew Robert Daniel Brown, Tessa was full of a new kind of love, a love that no one can ever prepare you for, the love of a Grandson.


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