Gigi was a bit older than Bobchi – and it seemed that he was in a rush to have kids… and then grandkids… as soon as possible.  My mother once told me that she thought it might be due to the fact that he’d almost died when he was younger (scarlet fever, if I remember correctly) and he was afraid that he would die before he had them.

So when my parents became pregnant with me, it apparently was a very exciting thing for Gigi.  And he just couldn’t wait to show me off to his friends when I finally arrived.

However, there was a catch:  he wanted to be able to bring me to where his friends were: the Polish club… which was a bar.  Alcohol and cigarette smoke be damned!

“Absolutely not!” my grandmother told him.  And when he persisted, my grandmother got exasperated and told him that he couldn’t take me to the Club until I could walk.  She should have known better…!

Several weeks passed, and my grandfather had come home from work from his third shift job and he told my mother to go lie down in the other room – that he would take care of me and breakfast.  So my mother went into the next room to rest.  A few minutes later, my grandfather came into the room… and it was then a few minutes after then that my mother started to wonder what he’d done with me.  As she sat up,  she asked him where I was – to which he replied “She’s in her high chair!”  As soon as she realized that he’d left the baby in the highchair by herself, my mother got up and started to head towards the kitchen.

It was at that moment that a pudgy little hand wrapped itself around the doorway… followed by a big grin on wobbly legs.

My mother and Gigi looked at each other.

“How did she get out of the highchair??? And she’s walking!!!”

“Oh, she’s been doing that for a few weeks now.”

Turns out, that every morning when my mother would rest after Gigi got home from work, he would take me upstairs to their bedroom and have me stand up against the bed, holding the covers.  He would then walk to the end of the bed and beckon me to “come on!”  Apparently, this went on for several weeks.

As soon as my grandmother got back from work that day, my mother told her the news: that Gigi had taught me to walk… and that my parents had completely missed their firstborn’s first steps.

Immediately after, Gigi exclaimed, “She can walk – so I can take her to the club now, right?”

Which he did.