“A house needs a grandma in it.”

— Louisa May Alcott

Grandma Zona flew in from Kansas last night.

Some of the cast of Willy Wonka. You guys were great!

Even though a tornado didn’t bring her, I’m sure in some ways the Portland metro area must seem like Oz to her. My wife’s mother lives in a small town in Kansas, and suburban Oregon is about a thousand times bigger. Traffic moves faster, it’s louder and a lot brighter.

With her, she brought a couple suitcases, a smile and a lot of patience. We have three middle schoolers in our house, and tonight was the final performance of the their musical, Willy Wonka. Grandma flew in expressly to see our kids perform, and the noise didn’t bother her a bit.

As you may know, if middle school was gasoline it would be high octane and Grandma loved every minute of it. She laughed and cheered during the show (which was by far the best and funnest show of the three I’ve written about). Afterwards, a lot of the cast went out to Burgerville. Grandma went with us, and in spite of the noise of 20 middle schoolers in a fast food restaurant, she had a big smile on her face the whole time.

The world is better with grandmas, especially when they’re as good as ours.

Thanks for coming to visit, Grandma Zona!

After watching the third and final performance of Willy Wonka, we took the kids to meet their cast friends at Burgerville. We ended up buying a lot of shakes and burgers for the cast, met a few of the other parents, and were amazed how patient the employees were. The kids did great. It was a happy night.