Gracia-Medranos

 

I had a very sad day last week. On Saturday, May 24th my dear friend and neighbor, Georgina "Georgie" Gracia-Medrano moved away from me. She and Jose ("Sho-Shay" in one-year old Brody-speak) moved to a near-by town so that her commute to work wouldn't be as long and miserable. Georgie has been my best friend for the past couple of years. She was literally my day-time sanity for the first year of Brody's life. She was a sounding board, advice giver, companion and dear friend. Kevin would come home every day to find me, Brody and Georgie playing either outside or at Georgie's - two houses away. Georgie went with us for Brody's 2-yr pictures. We roasted marshmellows together. We played family scrabble together. We mostly sat on our patio and visited. Georgie has the youngest spirit of anyone I know. She's ten years older than I am but she has such a precious playful disposition that our age difference was never, ever an issue. It is also the reason that Brody loves her so much too. We knew exactly where to go when any of us were having a chocolate craving - Georgies. M&Ms being the house staple.

Georgie is a 1st grade teacher. I can only pray that Brody has a teacher in his life like her. She loves her job so much that she chose to work 40 miles away (rather than continue to stay home and play with us) so that she could continue her life's passion. It just occured to me that maybe she went back to work BECAUSE of us!? Maybe she got tired of me bothering her every single day to come play with us! ;) I'm sure that's not the case because if we were outside when she got home from work (after an hour drive) she would often come sit and visit with us before even entering her home to take off her shoes or go pee!!

We will all miss Georgie and Jose very much. They were very-much like family. We had keys to their home. Their dog roamed our house and ate our cat food as she pleased. I borrowed food from them regularily. The FED us when they cooked, which wasn't often but we always were rewarded when they did! They loaned us their movies [in fact, Brody's infatuation with CARS all started b/c we 'borrowed' - and subsequently ruined and post-subsequently replaced their DVD]. They burned us CDs from their extensive music collection. They let Brody 'jam' with them in their very cool garage turned music studio. They bought Brody random prizes just because they love him. When Kevie was out of town and Jose had to work late we went to dinner and got ice-cream together. I'm getting misty.

I can't end this post w/o mentioning Dominico, their oldest son (pictured). He is Brody's super-hero. I always say that if Dom, a musician, were in Teenie Bopper magazines, Brody would have his photos plastered all over the walls. Dom and Brody are buds. He was never too busy to give Brody attention. He played soccer with him, played the drums with him, made paintings with him...basically, if there was fun to be had, Dom was there. Most guys his age would have been annoyed with Bubba but Dom was always game. Dan, Dom's younger brother, wasn't around as often but he was also very sweet to Brody and indulged his many questions patiently. He's also a really good Scrabble player!

For the people who will be fortunate enough to have this family as their neighbors, I envy you. We are praying that their successors will be even 1/2 as generous, fun and interesting as the Gracia-Medranos. I hope I'm spelling your last name right!?