Sharing Who Stole Grandma has brought me so many very special days, but today might just be the most special, because today I managed to meet up with a woman who brought so much joy to Moosh’s last few years, through her kindness and care.
I hadn’t seen Sabeen since the day Moosh passed away, over 10 years ago.
She was the carer who opened the door of the nursing home the night I went to ask, in desperation, if they would be able to look after Moosh. It was her welcome and warmth that convinced me to take Moosh to look around the home (the fourth we’d visited). And it was she, more than any other, who totally got Moosh’s individual quirks, her introvertedness, her wicked humour, her deep faith.
Although she left the home a little while before Moosh passed away, some mysterious force, or just good fortune, meant that she was walking past the hospital ward moments after Moosh faded away and asked if she could come in to pay her respects.
This morning I was sorting through my man bag and happened upon the carefully stowed away post-it upon which Her Most Wonderfulness had written Sabeen’s number, when they bumped into one another in Card Factory four years ago.
I’d thought I’d lost the slip of paper, but clearly, just like Moosh would have done, I’d put it in a ‘safe place’.
Suffice to say, there were tears. Tears when I rang, tears when Sabeen reminisced about Moosh praying for her and tears when I explained that I’d like to bring her a copy of WSG.
There were more tears when I visited, when I told her daughters how brilliant Sabeen had been with Moosh and tears when I showed her the excerpt relating our meeting on Moosh’s final day.
But, just as in Moosh’s life, the tears were chased away by laughter (at Moosh’s mischievousness) and joyful recollections of Moosh’s love of being a Grandma, and, most of all, by the certainty that Moosh would have taken some credit for the fact that Sabeen had been blessed with the babies she’d craved.
Between phoning Sabeen’s and visiting her, I recorded a podcast with The Book Shelf (https://www.thebookshelf.ltd) and was asked what was the happiest moment that WSG had brought to me. I happily reeled of a long list, but shared with certainty that today’s chance reconnection with Sabeen, a woman who meant so much to Moosh and gave so much to her, was one of the highest of happy pinacles.
Mark Lanyon Storyteller 