Short Story, Theme Prompt, Writing Prompts

Showing Up

Nancy's Notes 🖊️♬

Written for Reena’s Xploration Challenge,
where we are taking a rather broad look at
AGE-ING, and the relationship between
generations. This is my story.

Image by Me & Gemini

My knees gave up on hiking sometime around 2018. My back made its feelings known about gardening the following spring. And last summer, my grandson Wyatt tried to teach me pickleball, which I will simply describe as a near-death experience for everyone involved.

But I can still do plenty.

I can sit in the den for hours while my granddaughter Mckenna teaches me to crochet, and I will make something that is technically a rectangle and emotionally a disaster, and we will laugh until we can’t breathe. I can watch those true crime shows with her …. the ones her mother doesn’t know about …. and argue loudly about who the killer was, and I am usually right, because at my age I have seen a lot of human nature.

I can tell my grandson Lucan about the summer I was seventeen, which, depending on which version I tell, is either a cautionary tale or the greatest adventure of the twentieth century. He sets up the recording on his phone before I even sit down.

I can still cook. And teenagers, it turns out, will sit with you for a very long time if there is food involved. They’ll talk. They’ll tell you things they won’t tell their parents. The trick is to keep stirring and not look too interested.

And conversations …. oh, we have conversations. About everything. Music I don’t understand, friends, school, the state of the world and the state of my generation, which they find historically fascinating and also a little embarrassing. Fair enough.

I cannot run with them. I cannot climb with them.

But I can show up. I can pay attention. I can make them feel, for a few hours on a Sunday, like the most interesting people alive.

Which, for the record, they are.

NAR©2026

This is “I Don’t Need Your Rockin’ Chair” by George Jones

Reena’s Xploration Challenge #431

Everything on The Elephant’s Trunk was created by me, unless otherwise indicated. Thanks for your consideration. NAR©2017-present.



36 thoughts on “Showing Up”

  1. Pingback: Reena’s Xploration Challenge #432 – Creative Experiments and More

  2. I’m finding grandkids don’t care what I can’t do, as long as I give them attention and do what I can with them. Art with one, playing dolls with the other, are all it takes to make them happy. They just want to know they’re loved, and someone is interested in their lives.

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  5. Good post Nancy. Continuity of turning up and being there, as only grandparents can. I didn’t know either of my grandmothers, but was blessed with knowing my paternal great grandparents. Gram would join in our games on the roundabouts, even when she fell off, she would not give up.

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    1. Your grams sounds like a strong and determined woman! I feel very blessed to have so much time with my grandchildren; it’s important for them and me. I remember when I was about 8 years old and sharing a bedroom with my sister, our great grandmother came to live with us. We didn’t really have the room for her, so my parents bought bunkbeds for me and my sister and great grandma shared our bedroom. At first we felt put out, but after a couple of weeks, we were happy to have her with us. I look back on that time now and realize how much she enriched our lives. Thank you, Di.

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      1. My great grandparents used to come for holidays in the Summer. Mum and Dad would sleep on the bed settee in the lounge whilst they had their bedroom.
        Gram was a seamstress, so would make us new frocks. Our dollies were the best dressed on the estate as she made outfits for them out of the remnants. I remember two particular dresses, one made from a dark red and black reversible fabric so we had pleats in the skirts of the other side. She also made me a red shiny dress in a silky material which I absolutely loved………….. I think maybe because she only had enough fabric to make the one, and it was for me!!!! There were drawbacks though as she made dresses for both of us out of a splotchy yellow mustard material (imagine Mr Blobby, but yellow, not pink) with detachable collars. I hated mine, and had to wear my sister’s handme down as well. URGH!!!

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        1. I absolutely loved reading this comment, Di. My mother was a seamstress and made all our clothes. I honestly don’t think I had anything store-bought for the first 10 years of my life! As a teenager, I rebelled and insisted on “real” jeans! My mother was extremely talented and opened her own formal dress shop in our house, creating evening gowns and cocktail dresses. She had a faithful clientele of about a dozen women whose husbands were businessman who attended a lot of functions requiring formal attire. She made the costumes for all our school players but the most memorable and certainly industrious project she ever undertook was making my father a three-piece suit out of lightweight corduroy drapes! She was a marvel.

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          1. How wonderful! Your Mum sounds amazing!
            My Mum made some clothes for us, including school dresses as to buy them from the one and only outlet that sold them cost an arm and a leg and they did not have the money. We both had to have a yellow dress (gingham check) and each had one other, Sis blue and mine green. My compulsory yellow one was secondhand and two sizes too small, but all Mum could afford. Then in 1969 they changed the school uniform. With just me to buy for now, Mum saved to buy what I needed. and I had two plain yellow dresses as the alternative was stripes! I didn’t inherit her interest in needlework, in fact I hate it and would rather buy a new shirt than sew a button on. My sister was good though and made her bridesmaids dresses plus the pageboy outfit for her first wedding in 1972. I liked the frock, but not the hat or muff that went with it.

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    1. We are very fortunate that our sons and DILs live nearby and we get to spend as much time as we want with our grandkids. The 3 teens are extremely busy now, so every moment with them is precious. Thanks so much for a lovely comment, CA ❤️

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