Sweet Mimi

Today, my mom went to Grandparent's Day at my old high school with my niece Cristina. It was a little surreal imagining my mom sitting in a chair next to my niece in the same classrooms where I sat with my surrogate grandma, Great Aunt Mimi.

Mimi was the perfect date for Grandparents Day, even though she wasn't my actual grandma. She always was dressed to the nines. Beautifully colored pencil skirt, tan colored panty hoes, matching heels and a silk/blouse combo that would make a prime minister's wife jealous. Her hair,with slightly blue tint, was perfectly coiffed and smelled of just the right amount of aqua net.

She was gracious, polite, and attractive. I was the envy of all the other high school girls whose homely grandmothers showed up wearing sweatshirts that said, "I lost my ass in Vegas."

I will never forget my chemistry class with Mimi on Grandparent's Day my junior year. As we sat in our seats, she looked around with curious eyes at the giant periodic table. She eyed the lab tables set-up for today's experiment. She watched as giggling girls walked around the classroom until they found their desk. She jumped in her seat, slightly startled, when the girl next to us dropped a giant text book on her desk.

The teacher asked us to pull out our homework to go over it with our grandparents before we turned it in. "To show your grandparents how smart their grandchildren are." He said with an artificial twinkle in his eye.

I rolled my eyes as I pulled out the sheet of paper from my backpack. I had only finished half of the homework. I was thrilled I'd have some time to finish it before it was due at the end of class. I was going to show my surrogate grandmother how resourceful her surrogate granddaugther is.

It took about 5 seconds for Mimi to realize what I was doing. She slapped my hand with the pencil away from the my desk. "Stop that," she whispered harshly.

"What?" I asked. Did Mimi know chemistry? I thought. Maybe I was writing the wrong answer.

"You have to turn it in like it is," she said, giving me a look of disapproval.

"Oh it's okay," I said tapping her hand as though she was an innocent child who didn't understand the evil ways of high school girls.

"I'm going to tell him," she said.

I laughed quietly. Mimi has such a great sense of humor I thought as I answered the next question.

While I wrote, I saw her left arm raise slowly above her head.

"Mimi," I said still laughing but starting to shift in my seat nervously.

"Then stop writing down the answers. That's cheating." Mimi whispered.

"Okay," I said and I stopped writing for a minute. She'd get distracted soon, I thought.

A few minutes later I resumed my deceitful behavior and before I could even write down the periodic symbol for iron, Mimi raised her hand high and proud above her head. She was practically waving to the teacher.

"Yes?" The teacher said taking notice of the pretty grandma in the backrow wearing the fabulous silk blouse.

Mimi looked at me out of the corner of her eye. I put my pen down and turned the paper over.

"I just wanted to say you are doing a great job. Very interesting." She said.

The teacher beamed and gave me a quick smile before returning to his work. Mimi put her hand on my knee and gave me a few taps of approval. I looked over at her and smiled. It was impossible to be mad at Sweet Mimi. Hopefully my teacher remembered her timely compliment when he was grading my half finished homework tonight.

I saw a different side of Mimi that day. Aside from being sweet, generous and kind, she was strong, determined and feisty - and a champion of honesty. I was honored to be related to her and priviledged to have the opportunity to learn from her. She was more than just the greatest grandparent in the room that day; she was the greatest teacher.