Grow Old With You

Grow Old With You Ricky POV

I looked fondly at the wrinkled elderly lady beside me, who still had that sparkle in her eye that I first fell in love with.

We were sitting in the living room, having our typical light conversation whilst waiting for our new granddaughter to come for a visit.

She was now a month old, and all we knew of her was her name and the adorable videos that were sent to us.

Zaira looked at me eagerly,

"Ohh I just can't wait for Teresa to get here! I wonder if she has the same personality as mom did."

A flash of sorrow and grief filled her eyes for a second. To anyone else, they wouldn't have noticed, but my vast experience with her had given me insight to her different habits and expressions.

She gave me an apologetic smile and we changed the topic of conversation.

I tried to think of something that would fill the silence. A Nando's joke? No....

I quietly murmured the words YouTube, a thing of the past, and her eyes filled with tears of laughter and her eyes turned melancholy.

We had made so many great memories with it involved that it was hard not to look back fondly and remember all the good times.

And so we reflected upon our lives together from the very first meeting, to the wedding, moving away, our job struggles, our beautiful kids, watching them growing up and moving out and having their own lives, laughing and teasing each other the same way we had our whole lives.

Finally, after what seemed like hours (but was probably only twenty minutes), the doorbell rang. Before we could even answer it, we heard giggling and the room was filled with all the family who lived close enough to not require a plane ticket.

"Surprise!" they said, loudly but not yelling (I guess they didn't want to scare us old folks. It's hard to think that we are actually this old).

I saw Zaira also happy yet confused, as we glanced at each other and we realized with some amusement that today was our birthday.

As the other members of our big family noticed our sudden realization, one of our younger grandsons said something we couldn't quite catch, but when we heard the kids around him giggle, we were quite curious.

Beckoning him over in that way that only grandfathers seem to be able to do, I asked him to tell me what he said.

Puffing up his chest in excitement, the boy grinned and proudly said for everyone to hear,

"How old do you have to be if you can't even remember your own birthday?"

Laughing, Zaira and I exchanged a glance filled with amusement.

Even now, when we were old and grey, watching her face glow with pride at this life we had built, I knew she was still the most beautiful, wonderful person I'd ever met.

Zai<3Bubs4eva

PS: Hello, it's the beta again. Thanks for reading. I hope this one was characterized well enough, characterization for real people (especially ones that you don't know all that much about) are extremely hard to personify. Let me or ZaiBubs know if you see any mistakes.

Dooka/

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