What a Tender Heart

I had a chiropractor appointment today (I have tennis elbow, have had it for about three months...from what?! Who knows. I think it's from carrying Dale so much) and afterward I decided to take the kids to my parents' house because we were close by and hadn't been there in a few weeks. It was around the time of day that my mom is usually taking her afternoon nap on the couch, and in the car I said to the kids, "Okay guys, if we get there and Grandma is asleep on the couch, we are going to say (as I patted my cheeks) GRANDMA WAKE UP! YOUR GRANDKIDS ARE HERE! IT'S TIME TO PLAY GRANDMA!!!" The kids smiled and Brighton said "Except we won't hit her in the face, I think I'll wiggle her tummy" and I laughed and said "Sure Brighton, you can wiggle her tummy".

I then went on to say that they should give Uncle JP a hug too. JP is my mom's brother who is living with them. He is about 87 years old, has no family living, suffers from dementia, doesn't get the opportunity to get out much and I imagine he gets really lonely. I explained to Brighton that Uncle JP rarely gets to have hugs since he doesn't have a family, he doesn't have many people to talk to and he probably gets really lonely. Brighton asked why JP doesn't have anyone to talk to and I said that there just weren't many people around to talk to him and how we would be sad if we were lonely like that.

I didn't think Brighton thought a whole lot about it (you don't expect a 6 year old to think a lot about the feelings of others), and he really doesn't know JP well at all, but it melted my heart beyond what I can describe as we walked into my parents family room and Brighton said hi to Grandma and then went right over to JP (who is always sitting on the couch) and gave him a BIG, LONG, BEAR HUG. It was so long that I saw it, saw JP's huge smile and motioned to my mom to look and she got to see it for a few seconds too. I can hardly type about it without getting emotional. JP had the biggest million dollar smile you could imagine and it lasted several seconds as Brighton held on to him. Then Brighton sat next to him and told him about how he took school pictures (I didn't even know he'd received his pictures today!) and how he wanted to show them to him. Brighton ran out to the car and brought them in and showed them to JP. Shortly after that he went downstairs to play with Adaira but I couldn't help but feel so proud of my young son. It wasn't some obligatory hug he gave old Uncle JP, but a hug with the purpose of making someone's heart feel happy and loved. What a tender hearted, sweet sweet boy Brighton is! I just can't express how lucky I feel to be his mom and to have witnessed such a tender act of service genuinely rendered from him to his great uncle. I just love this boy!

Comments

Angie said…
Ahhh... Brighton always has been a sweet boy! We're getting anxious to see you all.
Hey, we need to schedule a time while I'm out there to have a girls night. Of course we'll have the cousins play during the days, but we need to have the moms get together and do something. Even if it's just to get together and paint our nails or something silly like that.
9/19/2010 02:00:00 PM
Sara said…
What a sweet, sweet boy!
9/21/2010 10:22:00 PM
Robyn said…
What a sweetheart. Thanks for sharing that.
9/22/2010 09:23:00 AM
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