When Eleanor finally becomes a grandmother, she feels accomplished in her role as a doting woman who will be at her granddaughter’s beck and call. She watches Lily grow from a baby to a fiercely independent toddler. But one day, when Eleanor goes to fetch Lily from daycare, she is surprised at the scene unfolding before her eyes — complete with crowds of parents, a news broadcast, and police officers.
When my daughter, Cassie, got married, the only thing that I could think about was becoming a grandmother in the years to come.
A young bridal couple | Source: Pexels
“Relax, Mom,” Cassie would say. “I’m not in a rush to have a baby, and you shouldn’t be either. You’ll just have to look after the baby sooner.”
Which is exactly what I wanted.
Cassie would laugh at me — but I knew that she was just as eager to be a mom. Or at least, to be able to love something that she had created.
A young woman laughing | Source: Pexels
And at the end of the day, I just wanted to be a grandmother because it was my time to sit back and dote on the child — the same way my mother had done when Cassie was young.
Two years into Cassie and David’s marriage, my daughter found out that she was pregnant, and I couldn’t contain the joy I felt.
I was finally going to be a grandmother. I could knit outfits for the baby while still making her homemade food — that’s the grandmother I intended to be.
A woman holding a pregnancy test | Source: Pexels
“You’ve gotten your wish,” Cassie grinned as she sat down at my dining table, digging into the tacos that she had been craving since the morning.
“But I’m going to need your help, Mom,” she admitted.
“Of course, honey,” I told her.
“No, Mom,” she said. “I need you to understand that this is serious. I’m terrified of this, and David works out of town most of the time, so with the constant traveling, I’m going to need you.”
A smiling mother and daughter duo | Source: Unsplash
I promised Cassie that I would be right there with her, at her beck and call whenever she needed me. I wanted to be a part of her pregnancy in the way that my mother had been in mine.
When I was pregnant with Cassie, I loved the entire process. But I was also guarded. And scared. And spent most of those months worried about our finances because my husband had been laid off from work at the time.
A woman holding her pregnant belly | Source: Pexels
I remember hiding away my cravings — if something wasn’t available at home, I would ignore it until the craving was forced away. I didn’t want us to spend on something that I wanted for a fleeting moment.
But now that my child was pregnant, I was going to pull out all the stops for Cassie — and redeem myself. I would give her every block of chocolate she craved.
Blocks of chocolate | Source: Pexels
Eight months later, little Lily was born. Cassie had no clue what to name her — but when she looked at the bouquet of lilies that her office had sent over to the hospital, she decided.
“This is Lily,” she said, beaming and handing the baby over to me.
I lived about thirty minutes away from my daughter and son-in-law, but when Lily was a few months old and David’s job had resumed its long hours and constant traveling, Cassie asked me to move in.
“Please, Mom,” she said one evening when she was feeding the baby and I was staying over for the weekend.
“You’re alone in the apartment, and you spend more time here than there anyway. I don’t want to be alone with the baby when David isn’t here. I get too anxious to leave her alone for even a moment.”
“And what will David say?” I asked, not wanting to step on my son-in-law’s toes and overstay my welcome.
“It was his idea,” Cassie said, moving the baby onto her shoulder.
That’s when I packed up my apartment and settled into the live-in life of a grandmother.
I adored every moment of Lily’s life — and as she grew from the infant I used to care for to a precocious nearly-five-year-old, our routine has shifted from home care to me picking her up from daycare — a place she’s learned to absolutely adore.
My routine was simple — I’d spend the day teaching English online, while doing the household chores so that Cassie didn’t have to. But then, I’d get into the car and drive over to Lily’s daycare.
Our afternoons together were sacred. We would explore parks and sometimes go grocery shopping before going back home.
But recently, we had started venturing into bookstores — exploring the worlds hidden within the pages of countless books, marveling at Lily’s surprising ability to grasp reading at such a young age.
But today, as I drove to the daycare to fetch Lily, hoping to pick her up and take her to get ice cream after school, a strange knot formed in my stomach — an ominous feeling that something was just different.
Usually, when I got to the daycare, color spilled out in the form of children and parents running to each other. The children were ready to tell their parents all about their day and the snacks they had made.
But today, when I arrived, the atmosphere was unnervingly somber.
The usual vibrant chatter was absent, replaced by hushed whispers and tense faces.
Gloria, one of the daycare workers, who met me at the door had a ghostly pallor, her voice a frightened whisper as she urgently pulled me aside.
“Eleanor,” she said, looking worried. “Something’s come up. Please, come with me.”
My heart pounded and my throat almost closed up.
All I could do was think about whether Lily was okay.
Gloria led me into the daycare’s office — a room that buzzed with grave anxiety, where parents and police officers were gathered around a television broadcasting a live session with the city mayor.
My heart caught in my throat as I pushed through the crowd to get a better view.
But where was Lily?
“…and it is with a heavy heart and the loss of innocence that we discuss the brave actions of one of our youngest, from the Daydream Daycare,” the mayor’s voice boomed from the TV.
I turned to Gloria, the panic rising inside me.
“What’s happened?” I asked. “Is Lily okay?”
Gloria nodded at me and gave a small smile.
“She’s great! It’s just that she saw something, Eleanor.”
“What?” I asked. “What did Lily see that could possibly warrant all of this?”
“Come, I’ll show you,” Gloria said, steering me away again.
As we exited the crowd of parents and stood in the corner of the room, Gloria pulled up a video on her tablet.
“Look,” she said, holding the tablet up to me.
Once she pressed play, a video began to transform the screen. It showed Mr. Henderson, one of the daycare staff, slipping several small, sealed packets into another employee’s bag.
I didn’t have my glasses on, so I had to squint to get a better understanding of what was going on.
The little packets definitely looked like drugs in powdered forms. I watched enough documentaries to know an illegal substance when I saw it.
“Is this what I think it is?” I asked, shocked.
“It’s illegal,” Gloria admitted. “But we’re still waiting on confirmation for what substance it is.”
Beside me, Lily’s small hand found mine.
“Nana,” she said to me, tugging on my clothes. “I saw him hide them behind where we keep the blocks. I didn’t feel good about it, so I told Ms. Jenna.”
Ms. Jenna, who had come up next to Gloria, chimed in.
“We thought it was a misunderstanding,” Jenna said. “I mean, the last thing we expected was for this to happen. So, we thought that Lily had seen something else. But when she described the powder in the bags, it didn’t sit well with me.”
It turned out that Jenna had gone to the director of the daycare and asked to review the camera footage from Lily’s class.
“You know that we check our footage whenever there are any incidents with the kids so that we know how to handle any situations,” Gloria said, as if explaining why there are cameras always watching the kids.
“So, we checked the cameras and Lily was right,” Jenna said.
The director, a normally composed figure, had a look of grim determination as he approached us to join the conversation.
“What Lily saw led us to discover that Mr. Henderson had been hiding illegal drugs here. When he’s not here at the daycare, we’ve found that he has been selling drugs on the edge of our property.”
“What?” I gasped, causing Lily to tighten her grip on my hand. “What now?”
“The police were called immediately, Eleanor,” Gloria said. “And he has been arrested.”
Dropping to my knees, I enveloped Lily in my arms, tears pricking my eyes. I took in her smell — the smell of her soap and body wash taking over my nose.
I couldn’t believe what had happened. And how brave Lily had been — using her autonomy when something seemed out of place.
“I’m so proud of you for speaking up,” I said.
She held onto me tightly. I knew that my granddaughter had no idea what had gone on around her. As far as she had been aware, she had caught a teacher do a naughty deed and she put a stop to it.
“I remembered what you said, Nana,” Lily said. “That if something feels wrong, we have to tell someone about it because it could save a life.”
I smiled.
I did say that to her — it was the moral of one of the stories we had read a few nights ago.
Around us, the room filled with murmurs of concern and admiration. Parents whispered about the close call, thankful for Lily’s sharp eyes, and the mayor praised her heroism and vigilance.
“We want Lily to know that we are forever grateful that she has put an end to this danger,” Gloria said.
After, we went back to Lily’s classroom and picked up her backpack before driving home.
“Want to get some ice cream?” I asked her, wondering what was going through her mind.
“No,” she replied from the back seat. “Let’s just go home.”
When we got home, I cut up fruit for Lily while we sat on the couch and spoke about her day.
“You’re a real hero, Lily,” I said. “You’ve helped keep everyone safe.”
My granddaughter nestled closer to me, a small, thoughtful nod accompanying her smile.
“Like the heroes in our stories, right, Nana?” she asked.
“Just like them,” I assured her.
At the end of the week, the daycare held a small ceremony to honor Lily’s bravery.
“We just want her to know that we appreciate her actions,” Gloria said. “It’s important for these kids to understand how valuable they are.”
Words cannot describe how much I love and cherish my granddaughter. But the new issue is having to explain to Cassie what leaving Lily in her daycare is the best option.
She thinks that there’s nowhere safe on earth for Lily.
What would you do?