I hear from a ton of families that I am their "star babysitter" or that they love how I interact with the kids. They love that I do the dishes before they get home, or will do little things like that. Well I had a babysitter who was the best babysitter I ever had. I often think of her when I babysit, like when I let the kids have an extra treat of some sort... or I might let them get away with watching some extra television, or playing longer than allowed on something...but when it comes to them having to listen to me. I demand respect. :-) Barb did these things for me and let me tell her about her.
I remember watching television with her, we would watch stuff like "Murder She Wrote" or The Miss America Pageant. My mom and dad used to be on a bowling league when my brother and I were little, and Mom would tell her that we needed to be in bed no later than 10:00 because we had church the next morning. Barb would wait for my parents to pull in the driveway and she would have us RUN to our beds, we would hide under the covers and I would try my hardest to pretend I was asleep. I later found out that my mom knew all along that we ran to sleep when they got home, but she let Barb do it anyway. I found this out like 3 months ago... It made me laugh when I realized that mom knew all along. I thought that I was pulling the wool over her eyes this whole time!
I also remember times that she would do the dishes for my mom. I asked her one time why she always did the dishes for my mom and she just said that my mom works hard all day long and the last thing she probably wants to do is the dishes. It's the same thing that I try to do when I babysit. There were other times that she would pick things up or just do things to make it easier. I loved that, now looking back I love that she cared not only for me and my brother, but she also took care of my mom.
Barb used to come over and have coffee with my mom and sit on the front porch. She would stir her coffee with the weirdest things ever. Pencils, spoons, pens, her finger, anything she could find. Haha.... She lived in the only house that was across the street and we would build forts in the field that was on the side of her house. She took the ends of the cereal and poured them all into one container so there was a modge podge of a bunch of different cereal.
When I would get mad at my mom I used to threaten that I was going to run away to Barbs! One time my mom helped me pack my bags, called Barb and said, "Amanda is coming to live with you, take care of her!" So, I went to Barbs, then it was dinner time and the food was horrible (on purpose naturally) so I decided to go back home.
She was the best. My first year here at Union, Barb lost her fight to cancer. I didn't get to go to her funeral. My best friend Megan is her Granddaughter, and she didn't make it to Megan's wedding, nor did she get to see me graduate. However, I know that she was looking down on us during those really important days. Smiling without her teeth, wearing her towel tubetop and drinking a cup of coffee!! Gosh, I can't believe how much you can miss a person.
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