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A couple weeks ago I told you about Becky and how Grandpa had stuffed her full of food that we had to pull out before taking the car home.  Mostly canned food, but there were a few fresh items that we took back with us.  The lemons, the blueberries, and the fresh pineapple.  There was so much going on at the time that upon returning home, the pineapple sat in a sack on the floor, forgotten, for two weeks.

Grandpa ran everywhere until his last two years, and it got him in the local paper in 2009!

We picked up Becky on March 2nd, Grandpa’s funeral was March 9th and a week later, on March 16, I ovulated.  Yeah, when you’re a woman who really wants kids and has spent years and years waiting for one, you keep track of stuff like that, and more.  :)  So there I was, another month, another day of ovulation, another two weeks of restless hopefulness awaiting me, even despite my stressful month and grief, and I had this supremely ripe pineapple from my Grandpa that I’d almost forgotten about.  But ovulation triggered my memory and I dug it out of its sack and sliced into it.

Mom, Grandpa, and Grandma in 1996. This hat has a blog of its own coming soon. :)

It is fairly well known among the baby-desperate (as are many tricks and aids for conceiving) that pineapple can help a fetus implant in the uterus, as it softens the lining.  Have you ever eaten so much fresh pineapple that your tongue bleeds?  Dennis loves pineapple so much that he has developed his own rule for when to stop eating it–when you start to see blood on the pineapple you’re biting into (lol).  That’s an enzyme in the pineapple called bromelain, which essentially softens up tissues, which also happens to help prepare the uterus for a baby if there was one created that month.

Grandpa holding me as a baby, 1980.

(As a side note, pineapple juice works great in a marinade because it tenderizes the meat! This one is my favoritest favorite marinade for steak to date.)

Grandma and Grandpa in love, circa 1950.

The highest concentration of bromelain is in the pineapple core and you’re supposed to eat a slice a day, including the core, for the first five days after ovulation.  It had been a long time since I tried this trick and forgot about the five day rule and continued eating it for seven days.  On day eight, while we were at our evening church service, I experienced mild uterine cramping, similar to what I usually feel at that time of my cycle as my body begins to prepare to shed the lining because there is no baby.  As I sat in church with that feeling, it was strange, but while I did feel a little disappointed, I felt more hopeful than anything else.  Well I guess it isn’t strange, I always had such incredible hope that surpassed any realistic expectations I should have had after thirteen years.  But I had this cautiously happy feeling in my heart, wondering if maybe, just maybe, there was a baby settling in and that’s what I was feeling.

Baby Grandpa, 1930

Turned out, that’s exactly what I was feeling!  Isn’t it beautiful how this child sprang to life so soon after Grandpa’s death, and with his help?  If I hadn’t gotten this pineapple from him in this sad and strange way, there might not be a baby now.  It tempers the sadness for me and turns it into something radiant.  It makes the baby feel so connected to him, and it just really touches my heart to know that Grandpa helped us conceive this child, like he was working directly with God to help our little cupcake come into being.  Even though our baby won’t know him, I have this picture of him framed, which I blew up and had printed from his newspaper article, and I will have lots of stories, including the pineapple story, for our child. I think Cupcake Miller is going to love their Great-Grandpa Millner and repeat these stories to our future grand children. Or at least, I hope so. :)

The circle of life.  Pain.  Grief.  Beauty.  Incredible joy.

As you may know, my Grandfather passed away at the end of February.  He had been gearing up to make a trip to Wichita so that he could deliver a car that he’d fixed up for me, and also to visit.  It was my sister’s old car, a ’96 Camry, which she sold to Dad because she couldn’t afford an expensive repair, which I was buying from Dad, and which Grandpa had said he would fix in exchange for Baby.  I thought he was off his rocker, because Baby is more of a liability than an asset, but I agreed.  He loves to fix cars and he probably was going to use her for parts, so maybe it was a good deal, or maybe he was just being ultra-generous.  Probably a combination of both, as he really lived to help others out…and to fix cars.  He consistently had about ten of them, or more, on his property.

I was very eager to get the Camry back, but Grandpa isn’t known for his timeliness.  Mom got her lateness factor from him, and multiplied it by a million, but he still is pretty hard to keep on a schedule.  He had fixed the car after a few months, but instead of bringing it back or letting us come and pick it up, he kept telling us he really wanted to make the trip himself because he lived to visit us and delivering the car gave him a good reason to come.  Nine months later, he was ready to bring it! A snow storm (the one that almost killed me) delayed him by a week and before the weather cleared…he was gone.

We aren’t guaranteed a tomorrow, but most of us take it for granted, not only for ourselves but for our loved ones.  As we witness the heartbreaking devastation and loss from the Oklahoma tornadoes, it is a good reminder to appreciate what we have today, especially the people, because we never know if we’ll have them tomorrow.  I’m just so glad we got to have one last good visit with Grandpa before he passed.

Grandpa always made sure to feed us something nutritious while he was visiting!

Dennis and I traveled with Mom and Dad to Joplin, MO, the weekend after Grandpa’s death so that we could pick up the car, and they were going to stay behind to help Uncle David care for Grandma, who has advanced Alzheimer’s.   The funeral wasn’t until the following weekend.  When we arrived, we found the car stuffed to the gills with food.

As we emptied it out, saving a bit for ourselves since Uncle David said we could keep what we wanted, I thought about Grandpa and how he had probably bought all this food to give to those he loved.  I thought about all the times he’d come to Wichita, car loaded to the brim with boxes full of apples, or peaches, or yogurt, or whatever, to give to us.  He lived to help people, especially their diets. :)

I wish I would have taken a picture of the back seat that showed how high the stuff was piled.  On top was a crate of blueberries, a flat of nectarines, a flat of lemons, and a pineapple.  Remember when I mentioned inheriting blueberries and lemons from Grandpa?  This is how–they came with the car. :)

Through the window you can see how high he’d piled food stuffs! This trunk had SO much in it, including a 50 lb. bag of shelled peanuts and a folding table that he bought for Dad.

I wasn’t able to thank Grandpa for his work on the car while he was here, or for the lemons and blueberries that he inadvertently gifted to me, but I’m so very thankful.  I now have a solid, reliable car that starts without any tricks, and doesn’t have any “Service” or “Check Engine” lights lit up on the dash.

And I’ve named her Becky because Becky seems like a solid, reliable kind of name to me.  :)

As for Baby, she is still alive and kicking.  Dennis turned her into his project car for a couple months and did some very inexpensive fixes on her appearance, and then my sister ended up needing a car (the same one who I inadvertently got mine from) so we gifted her with Baby.  I’m glad to have her still in the family and not consigned to a junk yard just yet.  I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for Baby and all her troublesome ways, but I’m beyond thankful for Becky and all Grandpa did to fix her up for me, including the groovy gray primer on her nose that we just need to cover with some white. :)

Though I have to say, part of me enjoys the reminder of how much work he put into the car I’m now driving.  Thank you Grandpa, I love and miss you!!!!