by Dave Williams
May 20, 2023
This weekend our grandson, Isaiah King, graduated from his U.S. Navy training and became a certified nuclear engineer. His first assignment will be on board the U.S.S. Harry Truman, an aircraft carrier.
He’s come a long way from the ten years he lived with us and grew out of diapers to become Captain Underpants.
Isaiah arrived at our home in Glendora, California, with his dad, Nathan, in the early oughts when he was barely 18 months old. They had driven down from Alaska in a beat-up pickup truck in the dead of winter. They needed a place to stay for a couple of months. As things go, they were with us for ten years. It was an unexpected challenge at the time but as I look back on it now, their arrival was a gift. Isaiah was our first grandchild, but also the baby CarolAnn and I would never have together. It also secured our bond with Nathan.
From my shoebox of Isaiah memories…
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One evening when he was very young the three of us were watching TV together and the show we were watching had a woman about to expose her breasts. CarolAnn told her grandson to cover his head with a blanket and not look. He did as he was told. A few moments later, still under the blanket as we watched the show, he asked excitedly, “Are they HUGE?”
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I was pecking away at my computer one early morning when Isaiah, age 7, came in quietly, picked up the phone from my desk, and rang his dad’s room on the intercom.
“Dad? Would you come get the peanut butter for me? It’s too high in the pantry and I can’t reach it. — Okay, thanks.”
“Isaiah,” I said, “I would have gotten the peanut butter for you.”
“I know, Grandpa,” he said wisely. “I just figured Dad needs to get up and get ready to take me to school.”
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“Nana,” Isaiah said earnestly, “I have diabetes.”
My wife and I had no earthly idea what he was talking about.
“What do you mean?” Carolann asked.
“I had to go potty real bad,” the five-year-old explained. “I have diabetes.”
CarolAnn and I stared at each other blankly for another moment or two until, as the Brits say, the penny dropped.
“You mean you have DIARRHEA?”
“Yeah, diarrhea.”
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Sleep peacefully, America. Captain Underpants is maintaining our nuclear navy.
Copyright 2023, David L. Williams