Grandparents

       I remember how I wrote letters to my grandparents in first grade; however, I never saw them in real life because they lived far away from me. With each envelope that they sent me back, I imagined their lives in my mind: what they looked like, what they like to do, what they were doing at that moment.  

      I was eight when I first met them.  We were a long way from my home, miles and miles, and I was coming closer to my grandparents by the train, then a bus, then another bus, and we were finally there. I remember the sound of the first knock knock on the decrepit, peeling green paint door, made of wood. I heard the sound of rustling on the floor, slow as a snail heading toward  the door, where I was standing with my parents. I was welcomed by a big smile without teeth, and he reached down and hugged me as a child hugs a first favorite toy.

       My grandmother shouted, “ Who is it?” 

       I ran like a bullet, shouting in response " It’s me, It's me, me, me, me…!"

      Her face, covered with wrinkles, still had the look of a child’s. I hugged her, and she smelled like a mix of  blackcurrant and mint, her favorite tea, which she made herself from plants in her backyard.

    I took a look at them. My grandparents’ hair looked like clouds. Their eyes were blanketed like a thin sheet. They had small funny wrinkles coming out from the corners of the eyes that told about their good sense of humor. Grandfather’s cheeks were covered in two millimeters of facial hair, making him look like a kind wizard from some old-fashioned cartoon. Their silhouette, from the distance, looked like two old trees slightly bent from wind and rain but standing still and proudly. Overall, they looked every bit as kind and awesome as I had imagined them in my thoughts. They smiled at me with that smile that only people in their age can produce, and I started to bloom. I was so happy to see them that I almost forgot time and place. I laughed from happiness coming out of me, and to my parents, I shined like a tiny bright star.

     I will remember them forever and keep those warm memories in my heart.