Saturday Morning Wakeup Call

It was seven o'clock on a cold Saturday morning. I woke up to music. At first I thought I'd forgotten to turn off my alarm. But as wakefulness came on better, I realized it sounded like a music box. These were my thoughts in order: Music box? That's "Silent Night." James is playing with one of the Christmas music boxes. Wait--James isn't here. Oh great, the dog got one of the music boxes and chewed on it.

Richard woke up, looked at me and then got out of bed. I heard him walking around a bit. He came back in a minute and told me that it was the three angels on the mantle. No one else is up. Too high for Larry. But it was playing away at a verrrrrry slow tempo. You know how music boxes sound when they're just. about. to. wind. down. But it kept going. At that tempo.

This particular music box belonged to my grandmother (Nan-Nan). I have no idea why it was playing. I laid in bed for a bit. It kept going. I told Richard, "I guess I'm supposed to get up." So I went into the den with the music box. I looked at it for a few seconds. It kept playing. I sat down on the couch and listened--trying to figure out what Nan-Nan was trying to tell me. Nan-Nan was well-known for her "portents of things to come." She told of waking up in the middle of the night once just knowing that something bad had happened--a really horrible feeling. She found out the next day that my dad's parents had been in a really bad car accident that night.

So I sat on the couch, listening to the music and still trying to figure out what I was supposed to know. I thought about Dad. It's Saturday so he's not supposed to go to work. If anything was wrong, there wouldn't be anyone expecting him anywhere. Richard came out about then, and I said to him, "I need to call my dad."

The music stopped.

Richard and I looked at each other. "I need to call my dad NOW."

Called Dad. He's just fine. Sitting in his chair reading his paper. I told him why I called. I didn't want to scare him, but I knew he would wonder why I would call him at 7:30 on a Saturday morning. We had a nice little conversation. Let him know we got the boys cards, talked about what we're doing this week and school being out and all that stuff. I told him to be careful today.

Then I made Richard call his parents. They're fine too. His mom said that maybe it Nan-Nan just saying, "Merry Christmas." Which reminded me of the time she showed up at our house about 7:00 on Christmas morning--banging on the windows and doors as she walked up the driveway calling out, "Merry Christmas!" She did *not* make any friends that morning. But I smile now.

So maybe that's all it was. Maybe it was her way of saying thank you for getting her sealed to her family last month. Or maybe it was just a temperature change. But no...I don't think it was just a temperature change. Believe me...I'll be thinking of Nan-Nan all day today.