"I'm cold!"

My grandson Andre is ten years old, 59 inches tall and 69 pounds. His arms are long, his legs are long, his neck is long, his feet are long, really long. In fact, most of his 69 pounds is probably in his size 10 men's feet. To say he's thin is a gross understatement. If it weren't for skin and bones, he'd be invisible. Subsequently, Andre is almost always cold. He is fond of curling up in a ball, yanking his T-shirt over his knees down to his feet, and then pulling his arms inside like a cocoon. But my daughter Shelley can't stand to see him do that because it stretches out all his T-shirts and then he looks even skinnier.

Last week, Shelley, her two boys and I visited my sister Anne in Oklahoma. While we were there, the outside temperature stubbornly hovered at a sweltering 100 degrees. But, thankfully, Anne's air conditioning unit worked overtime, keeping the house a pleasant 70 degrees. Pleasant for everyone but Andre, that is. If he wasn't outside in the pool, he was miserable and made the rest of us miserable with his complaining about being cold. Anne helpfully pointed out that he should always carry a jacket. She must have been remembering Mama's oft-spoken advice, "It's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it." Of course, Shelley commented, "We all know who would wind up carrying that jacket," and I added, "Or if he's like you all were, he'd end up losing jacket after jacket."

I've been doing some deep thinking, and I've decided that what Andre really needs is some fat. I used to be cold, but I gained ten pounds and now I'm quite comfortable. So if anyone looks at me as if I'm a fatty, I tell myself, "I'm getting ready for the last days. I'm storing up energy. After all, it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it!