This Is as Good as It Gets: Book 6

By N.K. Beckley

This Is as Good as It Gets is the sixth book that I have written for Xlibris.

It introduces some new main characters to the readerYa Ya, Carolyn, Terry, Mindy, Peter, Mark, and their classmates at school in suburban Philadelphia in the 1960s.

It tells the story of how my brothers and I found out our mother had MS and how we dealt with it during our school years and also later in life.

This book is an interactive one and also teaches how to put together a science fair for an elementary school.

This book also teaches some important family values both in the 1960s and today.

I hope all my readers enjoy this book as much as I did writing it.

N. K. Beckley

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 14, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543464085

N.K. Beckley

Mrs. Beckley grew up in suburban Philadelphia in the small borough of Rose Valley—until she and her family were transferred to Detroit in 1976. She is the mother of two grown daughters and the grandmother of five grandchildren. In her spare time, she likes to read, write, cook, bake, teach American Sign Language for the Deaf and music, after school. She also enjoys dance and American Musical Theater. Mrs. Beckley has taught music and elementary school in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Virginia for over thirty years. All of her students learned to Sign for the Deaf whether it was in her classroom or in her music classes.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Tradition

I t was a warm spring day in 1961, and my mom, my brothers Peter and Mark, and I had been in Philadelphia shopping for clothes and Christmas tins for my mom’s famous cookies, which she gave to all her friends during the holidays. This was a family tradition that we had always done for as long as I could remember. We were almost home when my mom, Carolyn, pulled the car over to the side of the road. She then asked my brother Mark to go into the store and call our dad, Terry, to come and get us because she wasn’t feeling well, and then she fainted over the wheel.

It seemed like forever until Mark came out and said that he had gotten in touch with our dad and that he was on his way with our uncle. Dad would take Mom to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and our uncle would take us to our grandparents’ house so someone would be able to be with us at this scary time.

We all kept talking to our mom in order to try to keep her awake, but it didn’t work. We were all so scared. Just then, a police car came by and asked if they could be of any help. We told the officers our dad was on his way, but one of the officers called for an EMS unit anyway. He told us later that he didn’t want three children left alone for any reason, and he stayed with us until the EMS unit and our dad arrived, trying to keep us calm.

By the time our dad arrived, so did the EMS unit, and off we all went in different directions. I wish I could remember the names of the officers so I could thank them, but I just don’t. Everything happened so fast, and it was still a blur to me many months later.

Hours passed before we heard anything from our dad. Our grandparents tried their best to keep us busy playing board games such as Candy Land and Monopoly, but our minds weren’t really on the games at all.

Just then, the phone rang. Everyone just froze. It was Dad. He spoke to Ya Ya, which is what we call our grandmother. It is Greek for grandmother, being that our ancestors were Greek. It was the only thing Peter could say when he was little, and it stuck.

Dad started by saying that Mom had been admitted to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and they were running tests. She was awake and had a terrible headache. She would be there for a few days. She needed a lot of rest and no stress. How were we going to alleviate the stress in our household? It seemed as if our home ran on it.

A few hours later, Dad walked in the door with the largest pizza I had ever seen—full of pepperoni, the way we all liked it. He never forgot that I liked hoagies better, and Dad and I always split one.

Ya Ya and I sat at the kitchen table, waiting for everyone to sit down, say grace, and then eat. It was a very quiet meal until my grandfather asked how Mom was. Everyone had their eyes glued to my dad as he started to tell us that the test results wouldn’t be back for a few days, and while he went to the hospital, we would stay with our grandparents. They would take us to school and to our activities after school. Dad had to go to work, and there would be no one to care for us. The only thing I remember him saying was to be on our best behavior and we would be able to see and talk to Mom very soon.

Ya Ya always told us that it was her right as a grandparent to spoil us, and she always did. I remember while Mom was in the hospital, she would give us money to go over to Sue’s Sweet Shoppe for ice cream. Sue’s was only three houses away, but she also told us not to tell our grandfather where we got the money for the ice cream. We promised we wouldn’t tell. The hardest part was when both my grandparents walked into Sue’s, and there we were, eating an ice cream sundae. We just looked at one another and smiled, as if to say What do we do now? They both just smiled at us, and we all walked home together, not saying a word.

Ya Ya would often help us with our homework, but she let our grandfather help us with our math homework because he was so good at it. As he used to tell us, it was the only thing in school he excelled in. They both made it fun for us, so it was not a chore to get it finished.

We couldn’t get away with anything. It was as if they had eyes in the backs of their heads, and they reminded me of my seventh-grade teacher Sister Mary Nicole, who taught English and religion. Sometimes my grandparents knew what we were thinking even before we ever said it.

The next question at the dinner table came from Peter, who was nine years old. Dad, is Mommy going to be okay, and when is she coming home?

Yes, she will be coming home soon. She will need a lot of rest and help from all of us as far as the chores are concerned. Can you all do that for me?

Daddy, will she still be able to do the same things with us as she always has? asked Mark.

Yes, but I am going to rely on you a lot to help her by doing some extra chores and helping each other and not fighting among yourselves. I know that is a tall order, but our friends and your grandparents are only as far away as the phone. I expect you to call on them if you need help at any time. Now let’s finish up our dinner and clean up.

Extra chores, the boys said, don’t we already have enough to do? How many more do you want us to do, and isn’t that called slave labor? asked Peter with a smile on his face.

*     *     *

That was really good, said Mindy. And the company wasn’t too bad either.

The months had passed quickly, and it was the day after Thanksgiving when all the fun began. Mom always took a short nap after lunch so she could be rested enough for the afternoon and evening activities. This meant the baking and rolling of the Christmas cookies for their teachers and their friends for the holidays.

Making Christmas cookies and rolling the dough had always been a tradition in Mindy’s house for as long as she could remember.

CHAPTER 2

The Surprise

M indy and her mom pulled out the marble slab so all the Christmas cookies could cool on it. The marble slab was as long as their kitchen table, which could seat ten people at one time. It was tradition in their household to start baking the Christmas cookies the day after Thanksgiving, and it was a good day for it as it had started to snow. Terry, Peter, and Mark were outside shoveling snow. Peter was nine years old, and Mark was seven years old. They loved to help their dad anytime he did something outside, and it gave Mindy some quality time with her mom, which she enjoyed so much.

Peter was in fifth grade and Mark was in third grade and Mindy was in seventh grade. They all attended the local Catholic school in suburban Philadelphia. Mindy had just been voted as vice president of the student council. So now she would have more responsibilities at home and at school. All the children were good students and were active in the sports program at school and in their