The Frog on the Rock
“Grandma, I don’t see it in the terrarium or on the windowsill. Where is it?” Piper asked as she glanced around her grandma’s kitchen.
“Keep looking.”
The kitchen was the center of her home, which she had lived in for as long as Piper knew her. The knotty pine cabinets and countertops in the kitchen were also the same cabinets and countertops in her first memories of the house. Her grandma wasn’t about to update anything; updating was a “waste of money and time.” And she was very good with her money. She lived frugally, sewing her own clothing, trimming the bushes that lined the back of her home, painting both the inside and outside of her home occasionally, and doing other odds and ends around the house to save money. Piper recalled many times in which she arrived at her grandma’s house to find her standing on a step ladder trimming the bushes.
“Can I help?” Piper would ask, usually receiving a “no” or an “I’m almost done” for answers.
“My dad or Uncle Edward could do that for you if I’m not around.”
“Your dad said he’s on his way, but I don’t have time to wait. These bushes need to be trimmed.”
By the time Piper’s dad showed up, which was often within an hour of the time she had alerted him that she planned to trim the bushes, the bushes were trimmed and tidy. His response was always a mixture of disappointment and amusement. On one hand, he was disappointed in the way his elderly mother wouldn’t wait for him to do the work she needed to have done for her. On the other hand, he was amused by her take-charge sort of an attitude, given her advanced years. He loved her very much and appreciated the way she served as the perfect role model for him and his brother, inspiring their strong work ethic.
Piper recalled another time in which she arrived at her house to find the pint-sized woman in one of her usual frilly dresses (Grandma never wore anything but dresses) outside with a paint roller in hand, rolling a new coat of olive-colored paint on the outside of her house. Such endeavors weren’t common for a woman of her age, which at that time was eighty-six years old. But then again, Grandma was no common woman.
Because she was so frugal, she never lacked for money and was able to travel to Germany whenever she wanted to see her relatives. They owned a small hotel and a big house in Steinwenden, so she had a nice place to stay while there. The company of her relatives was something she cherished. She also cherished the quaint country life of southwestern Germany.
Her house featured an abundance of souvenirs and knickknacks from the old world, including a wall of cuckoo clocks, a variety of crosses, colorful beer steins, decorated pewter shot glasses, a wooden carving of the Last Supper, and a kuche hexan. Her kuche hexan, or kitchen witch, hailed from the Harz Mountains in Germany. She hung it in her kitchen following an old tradition that claimed that by doing so, the cook would receive good luck.
Piper admired her grandmother for many reasons, not the least of which were her independence, determination and inner strength. Those qualities served as inspirations to Piper, who never failed to carry the small golden cross her grandmother gave her. The cross served as a reminder of both Jesus’ love and her grandma’s. She also saved the rosary her grandmother had given her. It bore the inscription, “Mrs. Edward R. McCoy.” Her grandma’s other love, Piper’s grandpa, had passed a decade earlier.
When Piper saw Grandpa McCoy in his home, he was often seated in his old reclining chair. His legs and cheeks were often flushed in a reddish-purple hue, though Piper didn’t know what caused those maladies. She liked to reminisce about the times when she was very little, sitting on his lap while he read her a book. Those times she appreciated. Memories of a kind man who battled his own demons permeated her mind. Had he not been such a drinker, he probably would have worked much harder and become a wealthy man, as his son Edward had become.
Uncle Edward liked to joke about his heritage. He always said, “God invented alcohol so the Irish wouldn’t rule the world.” That little phrase cracked Piper up and she always wondered whether the phrase bore any truth. “Stay clear of the sauce and you’ll find success,” her dad would say. He also told Piper that alcoholism skipped a generation, so being a drinker was in her genes. That worried Piper when she was young, but it didn’t keep her from trying alcohol a couple of times in college. She was curious and a little rebellious in her college years. Fortunately for her, she didn’t like the way drinking made her feel.
“I found it!” Piper announced as she held up the frog on the rock. The frog was a little green glass and ceramic frog, which Piper had glued onto a smooth oval rock when she was in nursery school. She had proudly displayed it to her grandma when she was four, who told her that she would keep it safe for her, figuring if Piper kept the frog on the rock, she would lose it at that young age. Every time she visited her grandma, she would look for the frog on the rock. Sometimes it was in the terrarium, which was a glassed in planter that her grandma had designed. Other times it was in a windowsill or on a shelf. This time it was on a table in the living room right next to the not so secret jar of M&M candies.
“I helped myself to some candy, Grandma.”
“Of course you did. That’s why I always keep the jar filled. Let’s sit down next to the candy. I’m feeling a little hungry.”
Grandma McCoy had a penchant for chocolate and always stocked her house well with all sorts of chocolates, from M&M candies to Hershey bars to fancy German chocolates. Piper loved visiting her, even though she didn’t eat chocolate very often herself. Something about her grandma and her grandma’s house delighted her.
Piper eyed up the organ sitting on the opposite side of the room against a wall, just under a wooden carving of Jesus’ Last Supper. The organ was much better than the piano she had at home as its keys lit up with all of the letters of the musical notes, so it required less time to learn and play. Before leaving, she promised herself she would play a few songs. The song sheet for “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” was propped up over the keys, which were calling her name. Grandma loved the Irish songs, because they reminded her of Grandpa.
“So how’s Nick?” Grandma asked as they both sat down on comfortable, cushioned chairs in the living room.
“Oh, he’s wonderful Grandma. Just perfect. I’m very lucky to have found him. He treats me very well.”
“So, when’s the wedding? It’s been quite a while since you started dating and you’re not getting any younger. For that matter, neither am I. It would be nice if you held the wedding before I meet my maker. It won’t be long before that happens. I’ve been telling Jesus that I’m ready for a while now.” Grandma McCoy was never one to beat around the bush and oftentimes her direct approaches were considered either rude or pushy. Piper knew better. Grandma McCoy didn’t have time for nonsense or chitchat, so she liked to get to the point right away.
“I don’t know when we’ll get married yet, but Nick says he loves me.”
“That’s nice, but it’s time to move forward. I like him, Piper, but if he doesn’t ask you in the next couple of months, you will need to move on.”
Piper gulped. That was the last thing she wanted to do.
“Bring him by sometime soon. I’d like to talk to him about this matter.”
“I’ll do that Grandma. Soon.”
Piper wondered how much longer her grandma had to live. At eighty-eight, one never knows. Her body didn’t appear particularly frail, though, and she was still able to do all sorts of physical tasks. Plus, her mind was just as sharp as it had ever been. Yet despite all of this, Piper had an eerie feeling she didn’t have too much time left. She could see the little hunch in her back was becoming more prominent, and that her stride was becoming more deliberate, and that she had lost a lot of weight. She decided to bring Nick to her grandma’s house in the next couple of weeks.
***
Piper tried to find the time to bring Nick to see her grandma, but things were busy at work for both of them. She wasn’t too worried about that, though, as she thought she had some time. She didn’t realize that the last time she saw Grandma McCoy would be the last time she saw her beloved grandma. Her father called her at work one afternoon about a week after she visited with her grandma to share the news that she had died in her sleep. Her dad discovered her body when he went to see her, concerned that she hadn’t answered his calls.
A feeling of profound sadness and deep loss clenched her heart and filled her eyes with tears. She loved and admired her grandmother very much, and wanted to be like her in many ways.
“At least she died peacefully and without pain,” Piper whimpered. “Dying in your sleep is probably one of the easiest ways to go,” she said in an effort to console her dad. Piper knew that her dad’s struggle to overcome his grief would dwarf her own struggle as his mom was not only his mentor and hero, but she was a significant source of comfort to him.
“The funeral will be on Saturday,” her dad said between sniffles. “Can you come?”
“Of course, Dad!”
“We’ll need to go to her house to prepare it for sale. She left behind quite a few trinkets that weren’t in her will, so I’m sure that we’ll be meeting Uncle Ed and his family there. She connected with everyone through a little trinket.”
“I just saw her, Dad. Just last week. I had a feeling that…”
“Oh, Piper,” he said with his voice crackling, “I’m glad you visited her. I’ve always appreciated the way you dropped by Grandma’s house so often. I know she loved you.”
A short while later, Piper hung up the phone and went to see her boss. She needed to ask for time off for the rest of the week, and fortunately her request was granted.
While driving home, she shared the news of her grandmother’s passing over the phone with Nick. Though he couldn’t take the time off from work, he volunteered to help out in any way he could after work. Attending the funeral Saturday wouldn’t be a problem for him either.
“She wanted to see you. That was one of the last things she said to me.”
“Don’t worry, Piper. She’ll always be with us in our hearts. I feel good about the fact you just saw her. That will help with your closure. She lived a good life, Piper, a God-driven life.”
The next morning, Piper arrived at her grandmother’s house and found that it was in immaculate condition. Red, yellow and white tulips had been placed in large planters by the front door, which appeared to be freshly painted in a glossy black finish. The interior was as clean and tidy as she had ever seen it. She figured her dad and relatives must have been very busy over the past day preparing the home for sale.
When she entered the kitchen, she found her dad, uncle, and Kip there. Kip was Piper’s same age and was always one of her favorite cousins. Thoughtful and responsible, he had always impressed her. In some ways, he was similar to Nick, which is one of the reasons Piper found Nick to be such a fine catch.
“We don’t need to plan the funeral,” her dad said when she met him and Kip in the kitchen.
“Why not? Did she come back to life?” Kip joked.
“Would you believe Grandma planned her own funeral at the Copper Funeral Home? The only thing missing from her plans was the date. She covered everything else. Casket, service, eulogy, tombstone, gravesite. Already purchased. Her gravesite will be right next to Grandpa’s in Copper’s graveyard. She even wrote her own eulogy. Her own eulogy! All we need to do is show up.”
Her dad wiped the tears from his eyes with his sleeve as he peered into Piper’s. She had only seen him show emotions such as these once before, when her mom died. Other than that, just about any calamity he had experienced in life was met with a calmness equivalent to the calmness of a sea of glass. Scott McCoy had never lost his cool.
Maybe to him and perhaps as a product of his upbringing, being a man was defined as showing no emotions. Today, and perhaps only one other time in his adult past, he violated what Piper thought to be a silly social norm. His teary eyes showed he was mourning the passing of his mom, which helped her to cement her love for her dad even more. He loved his mother and Piper appreciated a son’s love for his mother. If she had sons one day who exhibited the same emotions of love her father had shown for his mother, she would be a very lucky woman. She didn’t believe that men needed to hide their emotions. Jesus never hid his emotions. When Lazarus died, Jesus wept. Then He brought him back to life.
The group moved about the room, sorting trinkets and packing items such as food, clothing, and blankets. “Grandma McCoy never wanted to rely on anyone,” Piper’s dad said in a sudden sort of a way. “It wasn’t that she didn’t trust us. It was that she didn’t want to be a burden. She was too independent to be a burden.”
“Dad,” Piper said, feeling that she had something important to add to that notion. “I think God answered that prayer in the way she passed.”
“Amen,” Kip said.
Silence filled the room as everyone reflected on that thought before Piper’s dad responded. “I think you’re right, Piper.”
A while later, Uncle Edward blurted out, “and she was so organized. Check this out.” He pulled the appraisals of all of the silver items in her will from a drawer. “She had everything appraised! Everything.” He showed the group a bunch of papers with documented evidence of the value others had placed on the silver items in her home.
“Her house sure seems clean,” Piper said as she moved about. “Which one of you took care of vacuuming and dusting? And the tulips? And the front door? Everything looks very nice.”
Kip, her dad, and her uncle looked at one another as they waited for an answer.
“Kip or Ed, did one of you clean this place before I came?” Her father asked.
“Nope, Uncle Scott,” Kip answered. “Grandma must have done it.” He walked over to the front door and opened it. “Wow. Freshly painted. Didn’t notice that when I came in. Guess she didn’t want to leave anything for us to do.”
“I think she knew it was her time. She said something to that effect when I saw her last week. Something about telling Jesus that she was ready.”
Kip laughed. “I like that. Telling Him that she’s ready instead of asking to join Him. That’s Grandma. Vintage Grandma.”
Piper could see her dad was coming to terms with the passing of his mom. She walked over to the back door of the house and stepped out onto the patio to look around. The perfectly trimmed bushes stood in front of her, and she wondered when they would be trimmed again and by whom. A butterfly appeared, large and beautiful. Maybe it was a Monarch. Maybe something else. Whatever it was, it fluttered in front of her in its black and orange glory as if to say “Hello” much longer than she expected. Piper recalled the way that butterflies were released on Easter at the church. A new life. Grandma has embarked on a new life in heaven.
Her dad joined her on the patio. “Sailor and the cousins should be arriving soon. Your grandma put everything of value into her will, including her jewelry and the house. But her trinkets aren’t in the will, so Ed and I figured we would survey you and Sailor and his kids for anything you wanted.”
“The frog on the rock,” Piper answered. “Is that in the will?”
“No. I read the will. Nothing about a frog on a rock. What’s that?”
Piper headed back into the house to the table next to the jar of candy where she had last found the frog on the rock. It wasn’t there. The familiar words of her grandma played back in her mind and encouraged her to keep looking, as they always did. She checked out the terrarium and all of the windowsills and the tops of the tables. Still no frog on the rock. Heading towards the organ, she looked again at the wooden carving of Jesus’ Last Supper, thinking that the frog on the rock would be nearby. She was right.