May 20, 2009. Chevy Chase, Md. Abigail.

Abigail turns ten today, but I am not with her to celebrate. Instead, I have sent her flowers and will have her gift delivered. I hope she does not mind. In many ways I am not a good grandmother, or at least I am not a traditional grandmother. I do not baby-sit and I do not discipline and I do not play with the girls. Their parents do that. I like to do things with the girls and I like to provide places for the girls and their parents to vacation. I also buy the girls works of art. They appreciate the art now, but they will enjoy it even more over the next fifty years. Abigail is a beautiful little girl and certainly is the quickest of any child I know. I suspect she will be an athlete. My brother David tells of the time last summer when he played crokinole with Abigail. She had played the game before, but not often. David told her some tricks, then he beat her. The next game she concentrated very hard and did not speak or look up. She beat him, then she retired from the game, saying nothing except "thanks for the game". That is Abigail in a not shell. When she puts her mind to the task, she can do anything she wishes, but it takes something extra special to catch her attention to get her interested in the subject.

Now Abigail comes from a long line of relatives who have applied themselves to the task only when they were interested in the topic. Her father David, her grandfather Ken, her great grandmother Buckley, her great aunt Carol and many more. They were all smart people who concentrated when they were interested in the subject, not just when they were told to learn this or that subject. Poor Abigail will have to learn as much as she can in order to keep her options open for the next level of education. For a life time, this type of mind serves you well, but it does make life difficult in school. But for now, I wish Happy Birthday, to Abigail, my beautiful ten year old grand daughter.