There are things that we say, even compliments, that despite the extraordinary suppleness of the English language, we have said or heard before, and which as a consequence acquire the rust of genericism, which are boilerplate, and which lose their effect on us. 

After we got off the phone last night I thought, ‘Mum and dad and gram and Georgie would be very proud of you to see how you are taking care of me’.

That was not one of those. That was unique to the person, me. It also had the merit of being true and I recognized it immediately. I often slough off my Big Brother’s thanks out of modesty and discomfort but this time, I got goose bumps and immediately got out of bed. “Yes, they would be,” I said softly and in deep humility. I knew it was true the instant he said it. Our parents and maternal grandparents have been beaming down on me and my Big Brother, so close after so many years of distance, beaming on me for being there with him and for him through this difficult time, if they can beam at all. I felt them beaming.