the time an eight year old brought me to tears

Do you ever find yourself in a place and at first, not know why you're there? The other night while celebrating my birthday with Jared, I picked the restaurant. Solely picked by the outside looks of the restaurant, I didn't do my research. I didn't see any inside pictures and didn't even look at the menu. As long as the outside looks good, the inside must be good, right? Wrong. As a result, the restaurant was not what I expected. The food was more or less terrible, and the atmosphere was not enjoyable. I felt guilty the entire dinner for picking this place and having Jared spend money on something I didn't enjoy. 

There was one aspect of a dinner that was a different experience than the food. Touching in a way that I haven't seen or connected with in a long time. As soon as I sat down, there was a very elderly man sitting at the table next to mine. Sitting next to him on his left was a young girl maybe eight or nine. At first, I didn't think anything of it. As the night went on, I kept looking over at that little girl and her grandpa. She was so in tune and interested in what he was doing. At one point, she reached across and held his hand. I heard her ask as close as she could get to his ear, "Grandpa, what time do you go to bed?" He didn't hear her and without getting frustrated, she again asked a bit more slowly, raising her voice just a little, "Grandpa, whhatt timee doo youuu goo tooo bedd?!" He laughed and said about ten o'clock. A little bit later, I looked over and there she was, standing next to him, stroking what was left of his silver hair like it was the softest thing she'd ever felt, and wrapping her arm around his skinny shoulders, she gently squeezed him a few times. As they were getting ready to leave, she walked over and grabbed his walker that was against the wall, held it in front of him as he slowly stood up, waited for him to get adjusted, and slowly walked in front of him and led the way to the door. 

I found myself at that dinner table with tears in my eyes. It made me think about my grandparents and how life doesn't go on forever. How we need to live life with all we have and take care of the ones we love like there will be no tomorrow, because we are never promised it. This post started out like most, as an outfit post with a story. But it slowly started turning into one of my favorite posts in a while and needed its own time to shine.

So thank you, little girl, for reminding me what true love looks like and reminding me just how special life is. I can't thank you enough.