“OK, so I'm confused, Upgrade Papa – how did Rob live through all that – I mean, I know you wouldn't hurt him but I know some family members who would!”
Ten-year-old Glendella Ludlow was talking with Capt. R.E. Ludlow, who had adopted her as he had his own grandchildren, and somehow did not flip out when the baby, five-year-old Robert Edward Ludlow III, was giving everyone in earshot a lesson on how not to use algebra.
“Well, how I was supposed to mess up all that laughter for our neighbors?” the captain purred, and smiled as Glendella had her laugh.
“Rob is hilarious,” she said. “He's so small but he means everything so much!”
“And that is the thing, Glendella. I was raised in a Ludlow home much like yours, so being seen and not heard was very important. Yet without commnunication, how do we learn who we are and what we can do?”
“I have no idea,” Glendella said, “and I guess that's why my own parents are out there trying to find themselves, because they were definitely not found where they are. I know Grumps and Bad Grandma. There's no way.
“By the way, Upgrade Papa, where I'm from, the adults would do stuff to the adults if they could. You enjoy watching Good Grandma having a good time and laughing loud. Grumps hates it if he can't get the credit for it – so we were at a family gathering when I was like six, and he was drunk and yelled at her across the room to stop all that cackling and that he was going to shut her up when they got home.”
“My word!” Capt. Ludlow said.
“I said, if they could. He didn't know Bad Grandma's lover was there, too. So, guess who got pushed down a flight of stairs and didn't come out of a body cast for three months? I would have called the police, but when you are six, what do you do? I didn't even get it until I was nine and Grumps was grumping, and Bad Grandma told him: 'I had you put in a body cast once, and I will again – try me!'”
“My word!” Capt. Ludlow said.
“I wasn't exactly raised by and around what you would call an association of the good,” Glendella said. “Of course, we've since found out that Grumps and Bad Grandma are straight criminals, but, I kinda already knew that.”
Capt. Ludlow knelt down to talk with Glendella at her eye level.
“We are the association of Daily Seeking to Do Better over here. I'm not perfect – Good Grandma is closer than I am. But what I am doing, and the way we are going to live, is daily seeking to do better. There will be no violence here except in self-defense. Above all, this is a safe place to laugh loud and enjoy life for all ages, and be found, and loved as you are growing into who you are.”
“I definitely feel that,” Glendella said, “and I just thank God I'm finally here.”