My world changed on Jan. 25, 2020. Bradley Harper Bucy, my granddaughter, was born that day in Austin, Texas.
It was just like many friends have said: “Oh, you’ll love it. Everything changes once you’re a grandparent.” I believed them because I had seen evidence of it when Debbie became pregnant with our first child, Patrick Aaron Dougherty, in 1982.
We called to tell my mother that Patrick was on the way, and she squealed, “Oh, thank goodness! I didn’t think I would ever be a grandmother!” (We lived in Vernon, Texas. My folks lived in Little Rock, Ark., and still do.)