Points2Ponder by: Alan P. Scaglione

So I got a call from my Aunt Ciria, wishing me a Happy 4th of July! She always calls, just to wish us well on the holiday. It’s so “last generation”, with no one from our generation doing the same. And with our kids, you’re lucky to a get a text they sent to everyone in their phonebook. Just not anything personal in that. But, they’re that way.


I ask her how she slept. So funny! It’s the first thing we talk about each time we talk. How she slept. When you’re 80 years old, sleeping is very important, I guess?

She said she slept okay except…she was awakened in the middle of the night by a Roach!! A roach??? Yep! A ROACH!!

Now for those who do not live in Florida, the random roach sighting would be a moment when women freak out and men grab a shoe…yes, to kill the roach!!

But…in Florida…we all just “grab a shoe!” splat! Roach gone! Move on!

So I asked her why she was up at 3 in the morning with a roach…then she explains the “whole roach story!”

Dawson, her 8 year old inquisitive, energetic, chatterbox of a great grandson, had spent the night. He woke up in the middle of the night because HE saw the roach!

And he came into her room to tell her about it. At 3 am!!! He wanted to talk…about the roach he just saw…and he wanted to talk to her.

She said that he told her that he wanted to tell HER, his Nani (great grandmother in Italian) what he knew about roaches.

And at 3am, when this octogenarian should be getting that much needed, much talked about “sleep”…she was listening to Dawson ramble on about roaches.

Apparently, she said, there is a roach in Australia that is 6 inches long. She challenged him on that one, but he stood firm. Told her he had read it.

She commented “Kids are just so much more intelligent than we were at that age. He reads everything and remembers it all. Must be a 6 inch roach in Australia!”

Then I asked her why she didn’t send him to his “Nana Belinda” for his “midnight talk?”

She said so poignantly, “I won’t be here forever and hopefully, he’ll remember our late night roach talk when I am gone!”

I welled up with tears—here she is, seizing the day, in the middle of the night, knowing that…for Dawson, they are making a lifetime memory!

POINTS2PONDER Why can’t we see what’s right in front of us and take advantage of the once in a lifetime opportunity to make a memory?

I told her that he would remember that talk for the rest of his life—he just doesn’t realize it yet. She laughed and said, “I hope so!”

She knew what we all need to know…sometimes, you just can’t sleep through making a memory with a child—you have to wake up for it!

Just wonder if it will take us 80 years to learn that lesson? Or can we be the “intelligent” generation and learn and apply that now—and NOT send them to Nana!