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Shortly after her first divorce, my grandma moved back to Texas alone. She
got a job that paid for her apartment, and although depressed, tried to
focus on starting her new life. On her lunch break one day, she walked by
an art gallery and saw Mountain. Entranced, she went inside and inquired
about the price, which was far more than her month's rent. She told the
owner that she loved Mountain, and came to visit the painting most days;
eventually bringing in small payments of each paycheck to buy "her,"
someday. She had paid very little before the owner simply offered, "I trust
you, why don't you take it home." So my grandma lived in her small, ugly
apartment at one of the worst points in her life with her magnificent
mountain, who she still describes as being her best friend. "I would just
come home and talk to Mountain," she explains. "I told her all of my
stories, and she has just been there, listening, ever since." It feels
almost romantic when she describes it.

I didn't know my grandma well when I was growing up - she seemed fairly
distant and self absorbed. But when I was in college I went to visit her
by myself for the first time, and we spent most of the week talking about
life, family, and God. She was an entirely different person than I had
known. That's when I met Mountain, and when my grandma saw me look at her,
she said, "I want you to have Mountain when I die." Later, Mountain became
an instant portal to peace in moments when my grandma's mind started
spinning into its bottomless vortex of negativity. "How's Mountain?" I
could ask at any point in a conversation about the latest horrors of Fox
News, and immediately she would transform back into the woman I met on my
visit in college - someone elegant, and wise.

On my way home from my trip to Portland in October, I was envisioning the
apartment I felt would change my life in DC, when my grandma sent me an
unexpected text message asking if I would like to take Mountain now. "I
think it's a bit crowded here," she said. And knowing that her apartment
wouldn't have likely changed or become more crowded recently, I took this
as a benevolent sign that Mountain wanted to bring her peaceful energy to
DC, and live in this home I was imagining with big windows all around.

So I think she belongs here now, at least for a little while.

xo


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