Grandpa Mel.

I'm praising God that the bad weather has moved out of Memphis for the time being, and I'm saying a prayer for those who are in its path. There is a lot of destruction in the south right now.

My overprotective mother, whom I love dearly, has finally deemed it safe for me to sleep in my second-floor apartment. I wonder if her tendency to, um, overreact when bad weather strikes has something to do with my general feeling of nervousness over the past couple of days. It's nice to be watching basketball instead of scary weather maps for a change. I felt like I was starting to develop a friendship with the local meteorologist. (Although watching the Grizzlies play is currently making me very nervous. I can't get a break.)

I don't have a good segue for this... I have never given much thought to the concept of angels. I know they appear in the Bible, and I know many people believe in guardian angels, but it's just not something I have studied much about. Nor do I place much stock in the idea that our ancestors watch over us or interact with what goes on here on earth. But I have had moments, and I know my mom has too, because we've talked about it, where I can feel the presence of my late grandpa. My mom's parents were always around when I was growing up. They lived around the corner, and we saw them pretty much every day. They both passed away when I was in college.

Grandpa was, simply put, a really cool guy. He used to have a British sports car, and he would let my brother and me ride in it every year in the town Christmas parade. We were lucky if the engine held out until the end of the parade route, but we loved it. Grandpa could make anything, I was convinced. He made all of my doll furniture, which I still have, and a little wooden pontoon boat that had my name carved on it (pretty sure I still have that too). He is responsible for my love of Tervis tumblers. And my love of gadgets. He used to "trick out" his car by velcro-ing things inside it, like a trash can in the back seat. He even had a piece of velcro on the dash board to hold his money clip. I joke that my inheritance from him was a box of velcro. Actually, I'm only half joking. I really do have his old velcro box! And I've used it many times!

My grandpa was not very tech savvy. For a man who loved gadgety things, he certainly could not handle high-tech gadgets. He carried an old Nokia cell phone, and he taped a list of frequently dialed numbers to the outside of it. No point explaining that he could actually save the numbers inside the phone! But I loved that about him. This long story does have a point, which is that one day, years ago, I found him painstakingly creating a map of Shelby County and the surrounding counties. I'm pretty sure I had to type the county names for him (he and the computer were never friends). Then he glued them all into place, made copies, and began distributing these Mid-South maps to everyone he knew. He said they were for weather warnings--so that when the meteorologist reported weather conditions in a nearby county, he could easily locate the area they were talking about. I laughed it off. What a silly idea! (Just google it, right?)

Yesterday evening, as my family and I were preparing for more bad weather, I walked into the kitchen and found my mom in there... She was listening to the weatherman (who was reporting storms in some unheard-of counties) and studying that county map, which has been taped to the inside of a cabinet door for years. I cracked up. Who knew that old, low-tech, cut-and-paste map would actually come in handy?! There was something really comforting about seeing and using that old map. It really was one of those moments where I felt like Grandpa was looking down on us, possibly saying "I told you so," and reassuring us that we would be safe. I can't explain it any more than that. Those moments occur at the strangest times. But the thought that he was there with us calmed my fears and made me a lot less nervous than I had been the night before. Maybe I should go make myself a copy of that map...