Time Machine

I've been spending a lot of time with my Grandparents in Ogden recently. They have been living in the same house for over 50 years and thus provides a great job opportunity for me. I get to spend lots of time with them as I keep things up around their house. I have been able to re-tile their bathroom, paint various white objects in the backyard, and be called "a nice strong man" many times by lifting heavy objects onto high shelves (which is quite the self-esteem builder).

Since returning home from BYU Hawaii, I noticed that my grandfather has taken a liking to an old song that he would sing over and over again. He even taught it to his morning medical aid so he could sing it with him. As he would drive on out of his bedroom, him and his aid would come out singing, "I love coffee, I love tea, I love the java and the java loves me..." My grandma wasn't too big of a fan since coffee and tea has never played a big role in their lives, but I loved to see how happy my grandpa got when he started singing this snappy tune. He sang it so much that I couldn't get it out of my head. My grandpa asked my grandma and I to look for the Record. He knew he had the record with that song somewhere, but none of us knew where it was. It must have been frustrating for him because he can't get out of his chair to look for the record himself.

These days my grandpa depends on everyone to help him out. He is very limited in what he can do because of his muscular dystrophy. He has been in a motorized wheel chair as long as I can remember. He doesn't have the freedom that most of us take for granted, such as sitting-up on our own, walking down the hall, or brushing our hair, etc. Because I know that his life can get quite dull, I decided to find this song on the internet.

While he was busy looking over his new calendar, I secretly searched the lyrics and found the exact version of the song he had been singing. An amazing thing happened as I played the song; he got all excited and started to sing along. As the song played, he slowly got quieter and quieter until he temporarily left this time period. He closed his eyes and sat back in his chair. I could almost see the good old days relaying through his mind. I'll bet he was young again, standing next to a fancy record player and softly shuffling his feet to the beat of the music. It was a sight to behold. I hadn't seen him this calm and happy in a long time. It's amazing what music can do for the soul. Today, for my grandpa, it was a time machine.