This is a story of connections, which you will probably not make until I explain them to you. Life is a chain of associations and mine is no different. Certain, seemingly ordinary, items have deep meanings to some people and so the items named above took me on a journey back into my childhood.

My granddaughter called me one day to ask directions to the cemetery where her Dad’s biological father was buried. I was out and took the call on my cellphone. Once she explained where she was, I was able to direct her to the cemetery easily. Being distracted with what I was doing, I thought nothing of her request at the time it was made. In a short while, a second phone call came from her asking directions to the grave, once inside the cemetery. I was done with my errand at this point and started thinking about what brought up this desire to see this gravesite at this point in time. Now I wondered if she was still there, since I was now free, I thought I might join her. I called her and they (she and her Mom) were already done with their errand. She asked if they could come to my house tomorrow to borrow some garden tools to clean off the footstone at his gravesite. Of course, I said “Yes.”

The next morning, I had a visitor and did not get around to thinking about the garden tools or the fact that I might like to join them at the cemetery. When my visitor left, I was doing laundry and spotted a small American flag that was mounted on a stake. I thought that I would like to place this on my late husband’s grave. I picked it up and discovered that one of the attachments, a staple, had come loose. I brought the flag upstairs with me and went to the den to look for the stapler. When I found it, I saw that it was jammed up with several staples.

“What a pain!” I thought. Maybe I should just toss it and buy a new one. Then I began to think of my Dad. My Dad always fixed things, sometimes they worked and sometimes they didn’t. I had a funny, sweet memory of him fixing a broken electric can-opener. This can-opener never failed to bring our dog, Randy, to attention because his dog food was in a can, so this was the signal for him to come and get his dinner. Well when Dad was done with his repair job, the can-opener made the appropriate noise, but could not apply the pressure needed to open the can.

I remember teasing him that he could use it to call the dog…and he had laughed with me at the idea.

By then I had the stapler on the kitchen counter and was examining it. I saw that I just needed to pull a few staples out of the delivery spot. I was able to do so, quite easily and I tested the stapler and it worked just fine. I took the flag and stapled the loose end to the post and it was as good as new. Now I had something to bring to my husband’s grave, a warm memory in my heart and such a good feeling that not three, but four generations were being connected in a warm and loving way…thanks to my Granddaughter and her Mom, my Daughter-in-law.