Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay
“Grandma, I need to talk to you.”
Eleven-year-old Eleanor Ludlow knew that Mrs. Thalia Ludlow was her step-grandmother, but there had never been a step. Eleanor had been born the year after her grandfather, Capt. R.E. Ludlow, had made the widow Thalia Green his second wife, and so the second Mrs. Ludlow was the only grandmother any of the Ludlow grandchildren had ever known.
But the thing was, Mrs. Ludlow had a special, honest relationship about all of the troubled Ludlow family history, and because Eleanor was old enough to recognize her grandfather's deep pain about the loss of his first marriage and his children – one of whom was Eleanor's father, R.E. Ludlow Jr. – sometimes she went to Mrs. Ludlow with questions and things she needed to say.
“She never cuts corners, she never lies, and she's always real, but she's also never mean. Alexandra Ludlow is a part of me, and my father never got over her dying and never felt he could talk with Papa about that – but Grandma Thalia who stepped up never makes me feel that way.”
Eleanor knew her mother's family was even more troubled, and although her younger sister eight-year-old Edwina was done with them and her baby brother Lil' Robert did not even remember them, “they are a part of me too, because of my mother.” These were the kinds of things it was easier sometimes to discuss with Mrs. Ludlow, too.
“Am I just holding on to a nice illusion?” Eleanor said to Mrs. Ludlow that particular day. “Are Grandpa Tristan and Grandma Isabelle ever going to get it together, or do I need to just grow up and let it go?”
Mrs. Ludlow always took her time in answering these kinds of questions, time to pray silently.
“Well, let's start here, Eleanor,” she said. “You're 11. You don't need to grow up just yet. Enjoy being a child, still – it's not your job to be worrying about adults.”
She opened her arms, and Eleanor, who was precocious and overburdened because of her experiences, started crying and released more of that burden.
Ten-year-old Andrew Ludlow, actually first cousin but now officially the devoted brother by adoption that he had always been in spirit to Eleanor, came running, asked no questions, but joined the hug until Eleanor calmed down.
“Maybe this is a good question for us to handle for both of your other sets of grandparents,” Mrs. Ludlow said, and then Eleanor explained what she had asked.
“Yes, I would like to know this about my own Carter grandparents,” Andrew said, “because you would think because President Jimmy Carter is our cousin that they would already have it together, but then when you realize that we are way too many times removed you realize that we are removed from the good sense too.”
“See, I wish I could just write my folks off like that!” Eleanor said.
“I didn't write them off – they wrote themselves off and I have just accepted it,” Andrew said. “But the other thing is, they stay out of Papa's way because they have just that much sense, so I don't have to worry about them as much.”
Eleanor did a double facepalm, and Mrs. Ludlow suppressed a laugh as she re-entered the conversation.
“So you think your Ludlow grandparents have always had their lives together, without all kinds of people hoping and praying in hope that they would?”
Eleanor and Andrew jumped.
“Wait, what?” they both said.
“We're all human,” Mrs. Ludlow said. “We had to come to the Lord Jesus as Savior like everybody else, and we didn't always get what that was about, so people had to pray and love on us and help us – so, it is OK if you keep hoping, and praying for your other grandparents. They need it. God knows they need it. I'm praying for them too.”
“Really?” Eleanor said.
“Yeah – your grandfather is suing three-quarters of their descendants, nieces, and nephews because they didn't take care of business. You don't think they need prayer right now?”
“Oh yeah, they definitely need prayer,” Andrew said.
“Half of them had nervous breakdowns on local television when they found out what they had gotten themselves into,” Eleanor said, “so yeah, they need prayer. God is in the psych wards and drunk tanks too – He can meet them anywhere!”
Mrs. Ludlow did not know whether to laugh or cry at that, but continued by saying, “and Andrew, I pray for your grandparents, aunts, and uncles because they are your biological family. I pray that they recover from their things, too, and that they continue to stay out of Papa's way, because y'all know: he has all the smoke for anyone and everyone who bothers us.”
“I was good on understanding him until he sold the house we were living in, while we were living in it, to pay lawyer bills – but then, were we not going to rescue George, too?” Eleanor said. “Papa is hardcore. The Carters understand this! I need my people to get it!”
“Well, keep praying, Eleanor,” Mrs. Ludlow said, and then added, with a straight face, “because after either the court case or getting into discovery, God can meet them in the poor house and on the run from the law, so, just keep praying.”
“Thanks, Grandma!” Eleanor said.
“Yeah, thanks, Grandma!” Andrew said.
The two eldest Ludlow grandchildren went back out into the joys of childhood, and Mrs. Ludlow chuckled.
“Y'all should not even have to know half the things that you know,” she said, “but I pray that you, along with your other parents' families, will all be healed, to the glory of God.”
