"A Name is More Then Just a Name"

In my About Me section there's a cute little mouse that writes 'Penny'. In the past I have written the story about my grandson picking secret love names for us. It was initially intended to be a secret that he and I kept just between the two of us. Only he and I would know that my name was (whisper) ....... "Penny".

But his father caught wind of it somehow and started using it a bit. Then his sister was born and once she heard her grandmother called Penny she started babbling it all over tarnation. She never can keep a secret!

On a quiet afternoon a secret was born, but the secret took on a life of it's own. Fourteen years later many of the people that walk around in my world think my legal, given name is Penny.

Penny is the grandmother. The woman that sits in a wheelchair, the woman that the teenagers can bring their worries and laughter to, the woman that writes her memories in a journal.

And then there is Sandra. One day last week I was sitting here staring at the computer screen when one of my grandson's friends came over to talk with me for a bit. He asked why I was just staring at the screen. I didn't appear to be reading anything and I obviously couldn't be writing memories, my hands were sitting in my lap.

"I'm thinking about who I 'used' to be. I once was known as 'Sandra'. Sandra was vital, sexy, popular, and venturesome. Sandra had hopes, ambitions, and places she wanted to visit. She was quasi-famous, she appeared on TV, and she spoke to audiences across the country. I was sitting here thinking how far away that woman is to me now. How she has become, for all intents and purposes an echo from the past."

"Do you want Sandra for your journal? I know someone that can do Sandra for you. She'll make it young and sexy for you. It'll even sparkle like you do," he said as he and I laughed.

And that is how I got this:

A young female that I have never met created this. I've never had anyone do that kind of computer wizardly thing especially for me. I was thrilled when I received it.

Funny how a few moments of reflection can evolve into a young woman giving of her free time to create something sparkly for someone she has never met.

I love young people. They bring something so special to a woman that was once a Sandra, but is now a Pennie.