Grocery shopping with "Gram"

Today I took Gram grocery shopping. Not MY Gram. My friends' Gram. It was the first time in my life i've EVER taken an elderly person shopping...mainly because my grandparents all died while I was young. I was shocked to realize I was ENJOYING myself. ME...at ShopRite...walking slowly. VERY slowly. NOT rolling my eyes or uttering profanities under my breath once. I'm as shocked as you are. I just gave myself away to the experience. It certainly helped that the place was uncharacteristically devoid of humans. But I enjoyed being forced for once to drastically reduce my pace...walking slowly, taking my time. More than that, I enjoyed helping Gram. I enjoyed picking out cards with her and finding products on the shelves, fetching the heavy and out-of-reach ones for her. I enjoyed bagging and carrying the 3 full bags out to the car, then bringing them up the stairs at home for her. She requested I open the bottle of cranberry juice for her...with pleasure! No doubt the experience was a novelty. I'm sure I'd get less and less eager if I had to do this regularly. But as someone without a grandmother, I relished today's Special Time with Gram. The oddest moment perhaps? When she picked up 2 boxes of Animal Crackers for her great-grandchildren -- and I flashed back more than a quarter of a century to when MY Gram (who KNEW today's Gram) would buy those for ME at the SAME ShopRite, and I'd eat the whole box as I sat in the front of the shopping cart, and MY Gram would then just toss the empty box onto the checkout counter. Kind of a surreal moment. So that's today's zesty blog entry. Me have headache...again. Me must get sleep. Thanks for the experience, Gram!