“GRANDMA, this will be the best day of our lives! I LOVE THIS!” exclaimed my grandson Jaidyn after opening his Christmas present from me. It is difficult to buy a present for a child who receives presents throughout the year. I visited the Guyana Stores gift section with the intention of finding something unique for him and ran into my friend Carlos who is General Manager of the Pegasus who made a wonderful suggestion. “Why don’t you give him a day at the Pegasus poolside where you guys can swim together, have lunch, etc?” I thought about it for a few minutes and started visualizing how special I can make it.

Undivided attention to my favourite guy in the world. I wrote the things we were going to do and placed it into a box and had it wrapped with beautiful paper. We have been to pools and had lunch, but I was intentional that this day will be different. I heard the excitement in his voice when I called him the morning to tell him I will be there to pick him up soon. The bright sky was getting a bit grey, but I decided we will create our own sunshine if necessary and nothing was going to stop us. JJ has been attending swimming classes all year and was excited to show off his skills. We arrived at the Pegasus poolside and he had one request before swimming: he wanted to go to the treehouse in the gardens, so I complied. He was reflecting on his sixth birthday party in the garden of the Pegasus two years ago and that is why the treehouse was special.

After 30 minutes the sky was clear; he was ready to change and jump into the pool to demonstrate his swimming and diving skills of which he was obviously proud. He invited me to join him in pretending to be various animals that swim as he explained the special features of each animal. Some of them I heard for the first time and he told me he got the info from the animal kingdom. He is a brilliant kid and I always learn something from him. The conversation got even more interesting when we took a break from swimming to just chill and chat. He is looking forward to teaching his young cousin and my granddaughter to swim. I heard about his first crush and the recent crush and his girlfriend’s name, lol. Apparently, she will be at his upcoming birthday party and he told me his future plans, including the Lamborghini he will own.

It was an awesome feeling to have a day without a computer or on the phone or meetings and undivided attention for someone who means the world to me. These moments don’t just create memories, but allow you to reflect, recharge, reset and rejuvenate. After a late lunch, it was time to go on to phase two of the best day of our lives. His movie of choice was Frozen 2 (never heard of it before that day ) which was showing at Giftland Mall. I admired his confidence as he handed the tickets to the attendant. “How are you? These tickets are for me and my grandma,” he said, then he added, let’s get some popcorn soda and M&Ms. I suggested juice instead, no M&Ms and we had different popcorns so we could have shared.

We were a little early, so we began eating our popcorn and chatting. After a few minutes, he said: “Grandma this is a good idea to share the popcorn because sharing is a good thing; we get both experience different taste.” I kissed him on the forehead and reiterated the importance of sharing with others who are not family. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie he selected and the characters. Elsa the Snow Queen has an extraordinary gift — the power to create ice and snow. But no matter how happy she is to be surrounded by the people of Arendelle, Elsa finds herself strangely unsettled. After hearing a mysterious voice call out to her, Elsa travels to the enchanted forests and dark seas beyond her kingdom — an adventure that soon turns into a journey of self-discovery. He suggested photo booth pics after the movie. It was my first time and I did not realise you had only 10 seconds to change your props. We were laughing hysterically as we scrambled to change hats and signs for a different look. “This was so silly but a lot of fun grandma, “ he said. I hugged him and said, “Thank you for inviting me to do silly things, baby.” Jaidyn informed me before leaving the mall that our next date is to see Sonic the Hedgehog and we will have nachos instead of popcorn. Don’t know about you, but I have a date already for 2020. He knows what he wants and if God’s willing, the future looks bright. I often remind him how blessed he is for him alone to receive the love enough for many kids. His inquisitive mind wanted to know why all kids don’t receive the same love and God loves everyone, so I had some explaining to do.

Today we welcome the first Sunday of a new decade and my wish for everyone is for this to be your best decade as we continue to celebrate this beautiful journey called life BEYOND THE RUNWAY.