HEART STOPPING FIRST IMPRESSION

One of my favorite stories about my great grandmother “ Granny Pearl” was the one told me by my brother in law Todd .  Todd married my youngest sister Judy and now lives in San Antonio, Texas.  Just shortly after Judy and Todd married they were driving with grandmother from Plainview, Texas where my parents were living and where Todd and Judy met.  It was the first time that Todd had spent much time with grandmother and they were driving along just enjoying small talk and getting to know each other better.  Todd told me that he was a little nervous about spending time with grandma and was hoping to make a good impression.  I’m sure granny was probably telling a story or laughing about something which sort of got Todd’s mind off his driving.  He wasn’t noticing that he was going over the speed limit and realized only too late that he was barreling down the road at a pretty good clip.  A highway patrolman spotted him, switched on the lights and tailed Todd’s car in hot pursuit.  Todd’s heart sank when he looked in the rear view mirror and realized that his hopes of impressing granny pearl just took a turn for the worse.  As is customary for most Texas highway patrolman the first thing you hear from them when you roll down the window is usually “ Hello sir, Is there any reason that you are exceeding the speed limit today.  Is there any emergency that you may need to declare?” Of coarse you are staring into very dark sunglasses with a look that says this had better be good cause I’ve heard um all fella.  Well at this point Todd was about to confess that there was no emergency when to his surprise grandmother suddenly grabbed her chest and began breathing hard and complaining of chest pains.  She was swooning and saying, “Oh my goodness, I think I may be having a heart attack.”  Of coarse what would any one do? They were all greatly alarmed at an 80plus year old woman in heart distress.  The officer decided that this was emergency enough and waved them on telling Todd to get her to the nearest emergency room.  “Yes Sir”, Todd exclaimed as he was once again off on the road headed for San Antone.  Grandmother waited until the officer was well behind them when she sat up, and chuckled and started laughing in that unmistakable laugh that was so unique to her.  Granny evidently not wanting Todd to get a ticket faked the whole thing.  She was not having any heart distress at all but had put on probably the best acting performance of her life.  I don’t know what kind of impression Todd made on Granny that day, but Granny sure made an impression on Todd.  They quickly became friends that day and were so until she passed away almost a decade later ironically of a heart attack.