Sarah Karlyn Larue

Grandma's Summer Vacation Sarah Karlyn Larue

It was the 11th of May in 1947 when it happened. There was no warning that anything like IT was going to occur. No dark, sinister clouds hovered on the horizon to warn that a storm was brewing. I should have known better. I should have known that when a certain kind of people reenter your life you have to be prepared for anything - anything... Over a dozen children surged around me, laughing and shouting, a wild, excited mob. Two small boys threw themselves ecstatically around my legs, luckily one on each side or I would have fallen. A little girl with bright blue eyes and black curls jumped into my arms. All around me were bright young faces and excited young voices all jabbering at once in a chorus of different languages. Only three words came clearly to my ears. "Grossmutti!" "Grandmere!" "Grandma!" I glanced around the crowd in a sort of daze. "There must be two dozen of you!" "Oh no ma'am. Only seventeen." "Seventeen!" I exclaimed... What would you do if seventeen children showed up unexpectedly on your doorstep? What would you think if you came home to your wife from a business trip and found seventeen grandchildren had moved in indefinitely? What would it be like to be a child from war-torn Europe when you first arrive in America? And how would you feel if you were a prestige-conscious landlady who disliked children and their chaos, and suddenly had seventeen of them conducting a full scale campaign to convert you? Join them for their summer vacation and find out!