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“I remember this. The motherfucker was recording us without our consent?” Reflexively, I glance to my right, to the very window where Lloyd must have been standing while shooting this video. “What kind of sicko does that?”
“A deeply lonely, isolated sicko who was agoraphobic. He noticed a pretty, energetic, animated ray of sunshine moving into his building, so he picked up his long-neglected video camera to capture the moment.”
“You’re reaching, Charlotte.”
“I’m not. Keep watching. And turn up the sound.Listen.”
For a long moment, we watch my family’s activities below—events that would seem highly mundane to me, if Grandma were still alive. But in this context, viewing never-before-seen images of my grandmother, so soon after her passing, and from a time when she was still spry, lively, and healthy, is bringing tears to my eyes.
I wipe my eyes and take a deep breath. And when I’m just about to say, “What is it I’m supposed to see and hear?”, a male voice murmurs from behind the camera, “Areyouthe onemoving in today, or is it one of the others?” As he says it, the camera zooms in on my grandmother’s happy form, who at that precise moment is throwing her head back and laughing hysterically with my mother. The male voice murmurs, “Gosh, I sure hope it’s you.”
“Skeevy,” I pronounce, even as my heart is bursting at the sight of my happy grandmother having a belly laugh with my mother.
“Sweet,” Charlotte counters. “Keep watching and keep an open mind.”
My scowl softens and then turns into a genuine smile, as Grandma bursts out laughing again, along with Mom. “Those two were always laughing like that,” I say. “My mother always says her mom was the best mom, ever. And I always tell her, ‘Makes sense. You obviously learned from the best.’”
“Oh, Auggie.””
“She was a fantastic grandmother to Max and me, too. So generous and fun. A total blast to hang out with. I loved her so much.” I could go on and on, which is what I did at her funeral when I gave the eulogy, in order to give my heartbroken mother a break. When forced to summarize the incomparable Althea Martin, since eulogies aren’t supposed to last three hours, I told the packed audience in the church two months ago: “Althea was the kindest, silliest, most magnetic person you could ever hope to meet. The type of person who never met a stranger. Everyone who met Althea Martin instantly felt like her best friend.” It was all the truth.Everyone loved Althea Martin. And how could they not? She was always laughing from her belly. Always telling the best stories and listening to yours like it was the best she’d ever heard. She was constantly breaking into her patented silly songs and even sillier dances, even in public.Especiallyin public. She could make any stranger in her orbit, even the grumpiest ones, break into wide smiles. She was a cartoon character come to life.
And the best part? Grandma’s golden heart matched her sunny disposition. She was the one who introduced me to volunteering at animal shelters and got me hooked. She was the one who went to homeless shelters to feed total strangers on Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve after Grandpa died, rather than hanging out with Mom, Max, and me. That’s the reason we started having two of both those holidays. One with Grandma, and another for the calendar. And, of course, Grandma’s the one who rescued the little ball of anxious fur who’s now sitting on my lap this very minute, missing his favorite person, ever so much.
In the video, Grandma does a little dance, as Max and I walk by with her beloved dining room table—the one sitting in her condo now—and behind the camera, the male voice chuckles at her exuberance.
“Well, that’s not creepy,” I say sarcastically.
“It’s not. I mean, yes, itwouldbe, without the rest. But keep an open mind and keep watching. Lloyd didn’t have any friends or family left at this point. He never went outside—and inside, he was drowning in stacks and piles of useless stuff. And then he saw your pretty, vivacious grandma, moving into his building, and laughing and dancing with people she obviously adored, and I think maybe, the very sight of her, and the obvious love she had with her family, lit a teeny-tiny little fuse inside him. It made him smile and chuckle. It gave him hope. I’d bet anything watching Althea laughing and dancing around, while her hunky grandsons moved her in and her daughter cracked jokes with her, was the first time that poor man had cracked a smiled in ten fucking years. No wonder he wanted to memorialize the moment. That’s what this video is about—Lloyd feeling the urge to laugh and smile for the first time in ten years. It’s not meant to be something creepy about your grandma. He’s a guy who always memorialized the happiest of occasions in his life, so he memorialized this one, too.” Charlotte motions to the box ofcassettes. “That’s what’s on all of these, Auggie. I’ve watched them all. Some on double speed. And they’re all filled with memories of a happy life. The family Lloyd loved and adored. I think seeing your vivacious grandma made him smile and remember a flicker of what it felt like to love and be loved.” Charlotte’s crying as she speaks by now. Clearly, she’s highly invested in all of this.
The cassette ends, and I put the camera down on the card table. I’m glad it’s over, honestly. I’m feeling intensely emotional—missing my grandma from the depths of my soul. I swallow hard. “What’s on the next Althea cassette?”
“See for yourself. Here, let me set it to double speed, because it’s lots of the same stuff, over and over. When you get to the most important part, I’ll put it back on normal speed.” Charlotte exchanges the cassettes and sets the speed, and, suddenly, I’m watching clip after clip of my grandmother coming and going from the building, all of it shot from the same vantage point as in the first cassette. Over and over again, in double speed, Althea Martin comes and goes from her new building without looking up or realizing she’s being recorded. But suddenly, about midway through, she stops on her way out of the building, looks straight up at Lloyd’s camera, smiles, and waves enthusiastically.
“Whoa,” I murmur.
“It gets better.”’ Charlotte slows things back down to normal speed on the camera and also hikes up the volume. Once she does that, the next clip features Grandma not only smiling and waving at Lloyd above her, like before, she beckons to him enthusiastically to join her down below while mouthing, “Come with me!”
“I can’t, Althea,” Lloyd murmurs from behind the camera. He knows her name? Did she come to his place to introduce herself to her new neighbor? Also, was he speaking only to himselffrom behind the camera or did he actually look up, so that Grandma could make out his words? Either way, Grandma puts her palms together, like she’s begging him to come with her. It’s not clear what Lloyd does in response this time. But whatever it is, Grandma responds by putting her hands on her hips and tapping her toe comically.
“I really can’t,” Lloyd murmurs. “Sorry.”
This time, Grandma drops the “I’m waiting” routine. She pats her heart, and then blows the man above her a kiss before turning and heading off.
Tears spring to my eyes, but I stuff them down. I must admit, it’s classic Althea Martin. A touching and poignant—and deeplykind—exchange. One that admittedly touches my heart.
After that first back and forth, it becomes a rinse and repeat situation throughout the rest of the cassette, so Charlotte speeds it up for me again. In double time, I watch Lloyd capturing Grandma coming and going from the building, time and again. Mostly going, however. Each time Grandma leaves, she stops below the window and invites Lloyd to join her. And when Lloyd communicates his refusal somehow, presumably, she smiles, touches her heart, and blows him a kiss or a wave or both.
“Did you notice he rarely gets her coming back?” Charlotte says.
“Yeah, I did notice that.”
“That’s what makes me think maybe she knocked on his door or something on her way out. I think maybe she let him know whenever she was leaving, so he could quickly grab his camera and shoot a new video of her.”
“Why on earth would she do that?”
“Maybe she knew it made him happy? I think it’s pretty clear your grandma enjoyed their little routine. Keep watching and you’ll see what I mean.”
She’s right. In the earliest clips of Grandma’s comings and goings, her body language is kind and enthusiastic but pretty conventional. Toward the end of the second cassette, however, her movements become increasingly sillier and sillier. In those later clips, whenever Grandma stops to wave goodbye and beckon for Lloyd to join her, she does a crazy little dance that elicits hearty chuckles from Lloyd. Clearly, Grandma’s having a blast mugging for Lloyd’s camera. She’s overtlytryingto crack him up. No doubt about it. And Lloyd is having the time of his life. Or at least, the best time he’s had in many long years.
