Foster Grandmother with Nordic Generosity

We attended a Sons of Norway meeting this afternoon followed by our lodge's Christmas supper at the Elks Lodge. I've probably written before about how excited the lodge members were when we joined a year ago, bringing in not only three children but also two adults young enough to be the children ourselves of any of the other members there. They : us :: sharks : chum. New blood! New ideas! And if we joined, maybe other young families would join and keep the lodge going.

We have worked on recruitment of some of our friends-with-young-children, and they have expressed interest. Meanwhile, the lodge has worked on us, making me the vice president, Susan the newsletter editor and youth director, and Suzanna the musician (remember?). And we have enjoyed getting to know the lodge members and taking advantage of some of the benefits of Sons of Norway membership, including attending Norwegian camp last summer and receiving the terrific Viking magazine.

One of the members of our lodge is Monica, a woman in her late 60s/early 70s whom our daughters first met last year. Susan's aunt Kathy runs a business allowing people to hire her to help the elderly or infirm with their daily living tasks. Monica's mobility is reduced, so she hires Kathy to get her around town for various events. One time when Kathy was babysitting our daughters, she took them with her to run an errand for Monica, and that was the start of a great relationship between the girls and Monica, a "foster grandmother" of sorts to them. Monica even has Kathy take her to the girls' school music programs.

Well, Monica did something very generous at tonight's Sons of Norway lodge meeting. The current officers had been planning to buy a keyboard for the lodge musician to use at our meetings (there is no piano in our meeting room at the Elks Lodge). Monica knew that and knows, too, that Suzanna will be taking over as the musician starting next month or February (I can't remember which). She also remembers fondly when Kathy took the girls to visit Monica's dying husband in the hospital, and they got on so well with him, too. When a motion was made tonight to allocate a sum of money for the purchase of a new keyboard, Monica offered to pay for the keyboard herself and donate it to the lodge in memory of her husband. The president was so moved that he couldn't speak for a moment, and there were many tears all around, especially since long-time lodge members knew Monica's husband as a lodge member himself for years.

Isn't that a generous thing for Monica to have done? She's a terrific lady, so sincerely nice and perpetually pleasant. She'll be at Suzanna's school music concert tomorrow night and the girls' Sunday school Christmas program next Sunday evening, too. And she has offered to have the girls over any time that we need someone to watch them. She is even planning to host them for a night of pizza and homemade fudge! (Remember when the girls went Christmas caroling at Monica's apartment last year?) We're blessed to have her in our lives.