23 December 2025, @mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2960: her grandmother

Photo by the author, Deeann D. Mathews

“You know, God is even better than I thought he was,” ten-year-old Glendella Ludlow said.

It was the end of the next portion of her statement that had three entire adults tripping over themselves in changing direction to make sure they heard what was said after the last part of it.

“It's not just that I'm His adopted daughter because He is my Heavenly Father, but He added me to be adopted to Upgrade Papa and Good Grandma and seven great new siblings – but then there's Gracie Jubilee Trent, and she is really on top of things in a way I've never heard anyone younger than me to be.”

Gracie was eight … never in doubt, gifted to be aware of big systems like the hydrologic cycle, but not quite up on details like downspouts from the roof not being quite the same as faucets in the house, although as readily available. This among other incidents was the reason that Gracie's parents Sgt. Vincent and Mrs. Melissa Trent along with Upgrade Papa himself, Capt. R.E. Ludlow, almost got hurt, trying to make sure that Gracie hadn't passed on information that was the equivalent of downspout coffee made with love.

“Well, God does seem to be really good at doing that!” seven-year-old Amanda Ludlow said as she snuggled with Glendella. “I didn't even know I needed a new big sister to snuggle with, but I definitely did and this is great! And yeah, Gracie always knows what is going on!”

“So, check this out,” Glendella said. “I was feeling kinda bad about my biological grandparents and about how none of them care about me, and she sat me right down and told me: 'Listen, Glennie: people are bad but God is good. He knows you need four grandparents, and sometimes you need a little more, so look here: He gave you your new Ludlow grandparents, but you also got to be adopted by me to my grandparents, so you have two more Stepforth grandparents, so, you have four good grandparents who love you, but then there's also my other grandmother, Gladys Jubilee Trent or Grandma Jubilee, so she's your bonus grandma! So God took you from a bad four, and gave you to a good five!'”

“Your bonus grandmother is really cool,” Amanda said. “I'm so glad that Gracie didn't decide to hide her grandmother so we can have a Grandma Jubilee too.”

“And she wasn't even done, Amanda!” Glendella said, “She went on and said, 'Now, my grandfather, V.T. Trent, is with the Lord now, but because I have my Stepforth grandparents and Grandma Jubilee, Upgrade Papa is my bonus grandfather, and he is an experienced bonus grandfather who knows what he is doing because he is married to my bonus grandmother, and that's Mrs. Ludlow, but, she lost her first husband, so, your Upgrade Papa and my Bonus Grandpa is filling in as their Papa Robert so all her grandkids have all four grandparents too.”

“That's deep,” Amanda said.

“It is!” Glendella said. “I mean, we all have full grandparent coverage with extra, and it's even bigger than this house, across the color line, across state lines – this is huge!”

“Well, they tell us God is everywhere,” Amanda said, “so, we see He's just doing stuff everywhere!”

“I don't know how Gracie stays on top of all this stuff,” Glendella said.

“Gracie is special,” Amanda said. “I mean, she really has gifts and stuff. For example, right now: did you know that since the song says 'Try to Remember the Kind of September' she's working on memory program coding and about to get into everybody's phones to make sure they have their reminders loaded up, like, right now?”

Whereupon Vincent and Melissa Trent turned an about face with a shout....

“GRACIE!”

… and Capt. Ludlow just sat down on his porch and made sure he had his phone on him as Glendella said, “I mean, it's amazing how she stays on top of things.”

“Yep,” Amanda said.