Sandy at the table

Sandy sat at the table, coffee in her right hand, her left reserved for tapping on the table. She kept looking at the clock it had been hours since the call and her anxiety was almost intolerable. Why hadn’t she called back yet? Why was she so busy she didn’t call yet?

At 10 am on July 21, 1967, Amanda Jean Morretti was born, 6 pounds 4 ounces to the proud parents Sandy and Bob Morretti of Hartville. Bob was a retired Army man turned Police Officer, Sandy a homemaker and part-time Nurse at the local VA Hospital where they first met. The sixteen year old they adopted "Mandy" from had been raped by her foster parent and did not want to keep the baby herself.

She was afraid it would be too much of a reminder and she would wind up hating the baby for that. She was a pretty girl with vibrant, long wavy red hair, eyes of blue so it was no surprise when Mandy had blue eyes as well but born with no hair so they weren’t sure what color her hair would be.

Bob could have cared less if he had to buy 10 million wigs for a bald little blue-eyed girl as long as she was healthy and theirs forever. Sandy never shared any preference either way she was just glad to have the baby she thought she would never have.

Two more hours went by and still no phone call, Sandy called her cellphone repeatedly after all it wasn’t like Mandy to not call and since she had moved to Florida she called at least twice a day. Even after she became a nurse like her Mom, she still called. Mandy’s husband was still in the Army and rarely called her leaving her worried and alone in a strange place. They had moved there so Mandy could take the new job at a VA facility near his father who was ailing from cancer.

At age two, Mandy was a precocious child with a full head of fiery red curls. She knew what she wanted and the determination to get it even if she had to wrap "Daddy" around her little fingers to do it. She was walking full speed ahead and everytime she fell even when Bob wasn’t home she called out "Daddy" which hurt Sandy but she never let it show just picked her up and dusted her off.

A few hours later the phone rings, "Hello, yes this is she." Sandy dropped her coffee cup, cold coffee spilled on the floor. "Are you sure I mean I didn’t know about, alright thank you." She hung up, walked into the livingroom looked at the table by her favorite chair, "Babe" she said looking at Bob’s picture and then Mandy’s, "We are Grandparents and you did a great job my baby girl."