When Ira entered my life four years ago, I was editing a women’s magazine. It was a full-time job that left me with no time to spend with her. I quit my job in March 2016 to work on my forever-in-the-pipeline book and Ira now occupies my life and she’s quite a little package, who keeps me on my toes and who also drives me up the wall with her constant chatter and questions.
I’m under siege. It’s chaotic, mad, fun, lively, crazy, incredibly heart-warming and oh so unpredictable. To match Ira’s pace, I require great reserves of energy, not to mention patience, the ability to play many roles–those of a fairy, a magician, a wild animal, a woman with another name and identity, a gymnast, a mountaineer– anything that takes her fancy and makes my part in her make-believe world interesting. No, I have no choice in the matter but to grin and bear it. Oh, I’m not complaining, though sometimes I secretly wish I could become invisible and get some time out to write my book.
How many of us can boast of being on roller-coaster rides every day or talk to crows and pigeons and squirrels and trees and be bullied into spinning a new story on demand, at any time of the day or night? So, you see, it is an adventure with all the exciting, pulsating elements. I’ve survived the rough edges and am tougher and so much happier for it. Here, I recount my precious moments with Ira, the rough and tumble of being a grandmother and the love that surmounts it all. It couldn’t get better.
