GrandfatherCan you give the grandmother back her eyes?
Can you fix her walls and roof, so the house doesn't feel like it's falling?
Can you bring the pretty colors back to the mountain, at sunrise?Can you talk to Peter about beating those sheep?
Grandfather, I know you can!
Clara and Heidi in the skyscraper
Adelheid had been left by her cousin at the elevator in the hand of a stranger. He was old and his firm grasp of her hand felt as if it could lift her off of the ground. She didn't dare test and lift her feet off the ground to see if that were true.The Grandfather had made room in his broken heart for the Heidi girl and she was sure that there was no one she loved more than he, instantly.
He used very few words and even at 5 years old she could understand his silence. She read the placement of his eyes. She read the squiggly lines on his cheeks. The lines by his nose would lie falt on his face when he was happy. They would jump and wiggle, when something was not right. She would run around picking up things to try to make the lines soften. He was angry alot of the time, so she learned to love the angry old man and his cantankerous ways.There was a softness in his eyes. She knew that the softness was just for her. She was an orphan, but somehow belonging to the Grandfather had brought her a sense of safety and care. He grumbled about it, often, but she knew that they both had needed to belong to eachother.
