It’s not just a game

Mrs. V was a single mom raising 3 kids. Or 4, I can’t quite remember.

What I do remember is that Mrs. V’s body was diseased. She had multiple sclerosis. I had never known anyone with MS. But the more I watched Mrs. V, the more I learned it wasn’t good.

I think her family went to our church some. Or at least maybe someone picked up the kids now and again? That’s fuzzy to me.

Much clearer are the times I stepped into Mrs. V’s house. I occasionally went with my mom, who went almost weekly, along with Mrs. Y and Mrs. D (I think?) to talk and clean and . . .

. . . play Scrabble.

I remember watching these ladies gather around a Scrabble board to laugh and play with Mrs. V. Maybe I played sometimes, too. I don’t remember.

As years progressed, Mrs. V’s disease progressed, too. She went from moving her own tiles from rack to board to having to accept help. She’d tell my mom or one of the other ladies which word she wanted to make and they’d place it on the board for her. 

How can this work, I wondered? How can they still play this game? Why is this even fun to them? 

Because it wasn’t just a game.
It was relationship.
It was love.

Mrs. V’s MS worsened until she could no longer even say the letters. She would just motion, and her friends would figure it out.

And they continued gathering around the Scrabble board, using triple-letter spaces and Q’s and Z’s (10 points each!) in ways I had never heard of.

Until one day Mrs. V died. And my mom quit going to her house.

And we pulled out the Scrabble board at my mom’s own house. And when the grandkids came along, she taught them to play Scrabble, too. They were amazed at their Nana. She had one of those fancy boards with recessed spaces so the letters wouldn’t move around. She’d set it on a lazy Susan so everyone could have an optimal view to imagine optimal word choices.

How did she know such legitimate words as “xi” or “qi” (no U required with a Q? Crazy!)? How could she squeeze in a little 2 letter word to make a parallel play, scoring more points then would in 4 plays? 

Even after dementia set in, the Scrabble games continued for awhile. And even then, Nana would score big. For awhile. 

But not too long ago, Nana finally quit playing Scrabble.

Last spring, my niece Danielle asked for one thing out of Nana’s house.
Her Scrabble board.

Because it wasn’t just a game.
It was relationship.
It was love.

We’ll never forget that.

Anybody up for a game of Scrabble?

* * *
What little thing have you transformed into an important thing?

Related:

• No bum gifts
• Mama’s advice
• Open the bottle, honor the Father