Brushing Teeth

My mother and father enjoyed their grandchildren, mom always said they made her heart overflow.  Vanessa reminded them so much of me when I was little, and funny little Rachel always made my father laugh.  When the children got older I would send them to Canada to spend time with their grandparents at the cottage in Muskoka, a place that held special childhood memories for me.  Mom and Dad divided their time between two places dear to them both, six months on Bequia and six months in Muskoka.

When Rachel was a small baby my parents often took Vanessa to their house in Friendship for the week-end, something Vanessa loved!  On Saturdays mom and dad’s small house was filled to the brim with children, it was a day for fellowship and music for the young.  Mom would play her auto harp and the children would sing their little hearts out, after which they would have juice and snacks.   Saturdays at “Angels’ Rest” became so crowded that my parents had a large deck built over their garage, the house wasn’t big enough to hold so many children.

Sundays were for church, and getting dressed up and going with my parents to Paget Farm was something Vanessa liked best of all.  Dad, an Anglican Minister, took the services each week at Holy Cross, the Anglican church on the south side of the Island.  Vanessa would meet up with the children she had played with the day before and be fussed over by the older ladies.  After church they would either join us for lunch at home in Belmont or Mac and I would meet up with them at De Reef in Lower Bay.

After a few such visits to my parents’ house I noticed Vanessa doing something very peculiar each time she brushed her teeth.  She would carefully squeeze tooth-paste onto her little brush, then with both hands she would tug at her teeth before brushing them.  She did this standing on a stool with her face pressed up to the bathroom mirror, and I finally asked her what she was doing.  She told me she was trying to brush her teeth like grandma.

The next time I saw my mother I asked her about it, explaining Vanessa’s behavior in front of the mirror.  Mom laughed long and hard before she told me what she had said to Vanessa about brushing her teeth.  My mother had a full set of dentures, and always removed them from her mouth to brush.  Vanessa,  watching her clean her teeth in this unusual way had said, “Grandma!  You does take your teeth out to brush them?” to which my mother replied very seriously, “why yes dear, don’t you??”

My mother had a fine sense of humor, but for a small child it could be confusing! I could only hope that Vanessa would never see my father washing his glass eye…..