Alright, get it out of the way now. Get your laughs in while you can. I know what I am about to report, our hope of finding Me-Mo, always gets a chuckle.
Then, people think we are trying to be funny. Then they accuse us of ripping off that magical mouse franchise.
Well, what the hell else are we supposed to call it when our grandmother goes missing? Our grandmother, known as Me-Mo?
You can believe whatever you want, but before there was ever even the thought of that damn movie, we were calling our grandmother Me-Mo. Her grandmother was called that; and so was her grandmother.
Grandmothers in our family, at least on my mother’s side, have never been called anything else.
Loads of arguments about its origins: Some, “It only makes sense in a different language!”–Lord, let’s hope that’s true. Others, “It was just a cutesy name, like when a little kid mispronounces what you were trying to call that sweet, little, old lady and she likes it so much, it just sticks.” A few even try to say it started as a shortened way of saying “mother’s mother.” Clearly, they passed along some spelling skills to their kin, because I have had to spellcheck the crap out of this just to make it legible. (God knows I would not have spelled that word right otherwise.)
The thing about Me-Mo: she is just about the easiest little person to find in the whole, entire world. She may be only four-and-a-half feet tall, but those gaudy outfits she wears make her hard to miss.
Like when you see an apple tree in an orange grove. A raggedy dog in a field of cats.
It was those colorful clothes that helped us know she was gone. She was there one day, under foot, in our kitchens, in our hallways, hazing us with her bathroom skills (gross!) Then, just gone.
Police said she probably got confused, wandered off, and would be located soon. But, I don’t think they’re really looking. Not like I have been.
It has been 24 days since she went missing. And, I have found 13 pieces of her colorful clothing. In different parts of town. Like breadcrumbs in that kids story.
Maybe she left them for me. Maybe as clues. She could not have been wearing that many things when she disappeared.
Could she?