Nonna's Visits

The Boa

Mom would visit wherever we lived and she often came to Pointe Claire with her Nonna gene. 

One time Mom came to babysit Tyson when he was about five months old.  Tyson’s kind and sensitive character came through even at this age.  He rarely cried, but he cooed. He was such a good baby.  I was sure Mom could handle him and he wouldn’t give her any grief.

She took him to Ottawa to visit her good friend Lois Langevin.  Robert, Lois’ son, lived at home, but had left for a few days, leaving his Mom in charge of his boa constrictor in the basement.  Lois worried that it would get out, but Robert assured her that this was impossible.

When Mom arrived, she put Tyson down in the upstairs bedroom for a nap.  Since she didn’t want him to fall off the bed, she put him comfortably on the floor and left the door open. She then joined Lois in the bright and sunny den that looked out onto the back yard and pool.  There they sipped on a glass of white wine and got caught up on their news.

After a couple of hours, Lois invited Mom to have a look at the boa in the basement.  Mom was nervous just thinking about it.  Needless to explain their horror when they saw the cage was empty. 

They raced up stairs, dreading what they might find.  Much to their relief, Tyson was all in one piece, still sleeping on the floor. But where was the boa and what were they going to do with it?

They found it in the next room slithering up on the curtains.  They closed the door, picked up Tyson and gingerly went back to the den.  Mom neglected to tell me about this until  years later.

The Police and the Fire Department

Another visit entailed the Fire Department and the Police when Brandon went missing.

Brandon was two.  I had brought him for a long walk that day to the shopping centre about one kilometer away.  That evening, he didn’t want to go to bed, but we insisted he stay in bed anyway.  Mom had gone to bed earlier and was sleeping in Damon’s room.  When we turned in at ten, Brandon was no where to be found.  We woke Damon and Tyson up to help search the house, but to no avail.  I was worried he left the house and went back to the shopping centre.  I started my search on our street, checking each car, thinking he may have crawled in and fallen asleep. The air was still and mist hung around the street lights.  It was errie. 

Feeling that time was of the essence for my missing child, I called the Fire Department and they started a search on the main roads. The police were alerted and came and checked our street out.  They searched the house and even looked in the cupboards with their flash lights in the room where Mom was sleeping.  I was desperate.

One of the policemen saw a lump at the foot of Mom’s bed, under the covers.  He didn’t want to wake her up, so he asked if we would check it out.  Well, guess who had fallen asleep under the covers!  There Brandon was, fast asleep. 

Forgetting Damon

We had arranged a rendezvous point in Ottawa where Mom was to pick up Damon and take him back home to Thornbury with her.  Well she forgot.  When Mom got home, we asked her how Damon was doing.  There was this long breathless pause as the synapses struggled to connect. “Oh no. Did I forget?”  she said in a very guilty tone. We teased, “You didn’t forget him, did you?  Do you think he’s still waiting for you on the street?”  She had a hard time living that one down.  Damon was about 12.