Grandma Lu Gets A Visitor Late At Night

 Betty watched Grandma Lu gather cups and a small plate of cookies to the kitchen table. It seemed like she  couldn't take her eyes from her. While Grandma Lu put things on the table,  Betty took her folder of pictures and put them on the table. Grandma Lu sat down and took a sip of her coffee. "You know I will suffer for drinking this, this late at night. I used to drink it to stay awake when the kids were little. My how things change over the years."

"Let's see what you have here. She started going through some of the pictures until she got to one. The picture of her home when she was just a little girl. It was the only picture she had of it. "How did you get this picture? I have one just like this. As far as I know there aren't any others."

Betty let out a sigh of relief and wiped tears from her eyes. "I was right. I just knew that I should know you. There was something about how you told your stories and  the way you held your head. You look like pictures I have seen of her. I don't know for sure where this picture came from, but I am thinking at one time it belonged to my grandmother or some relative. People seldom wrote on the back of the pictures, so I really didn't know what I had. Here is a picture of a lady called only Margaret. I think she is a distant relative."

Grandma Lu held that picture and shook her head. "Yes, that is Margaret. My mother's closest friend and cousin. Your three times great grandmother only had one daughter and several sons when she married my great grandfather. They had only one child after they  married, and that was my grandmother. Just a minute I think I have some pictures out that I was looking at the other day."

"Betty, here is a picture of my mother. She baked for grocery stores and other folks to put my sister through nurses training. She was a really good cook."  Betty just shook her head and said, "Just look at these pictures. They could be twins!" 

The pictures were priceless in Betty's mind. Pictures of men and women she had never known. Working on a farm, posing on a porch. Who were these people? Were they nice? Were they poor or rich? She had so many questions and there was probably only one person alive that could answer any of them: Grandma Lu. But she knew it was getting late.

Betty saw the older lady yawn and apologized for stopping by so late. "I am so sorry for coming late. I should have called first. People say that I am a bit ..Grandma Lu interrupted and said "A bit like your great grandmother, Margaret?" She laughed and so did Betty. What an odd day, but as she left she thought, I just might have a whole new family. Such fun. Fun is something she hadn't had in a very long time. Thank goodness for her small son, Joey. He brought in the sunshine when she felt only the dreary day blues on some days.