“I’M GOING TO HARVARD”

“Poppy! Poppy!” I’m going to Harvard!! I was hunched over the computer in my office, attempting to finish a short story.  Tory’s words jolted me upright.  Tory is our 7-year old granddaughter, the third of four wonderful grandchildren, the only girl.  The rose in a briar patch!

I couldn’t believe what I had just heard and immediately assumed that her father had put her up to it, just to bug me (I went to Yale).  I barked back, “Tory, go into the kitchen and tell Nanny that I said to wash your mouth out with soap.”

Not to be deterred, she repeated, “No, Poppy, I’m really going to Harvard at the end of March.”  The coach had just emailed my son Graham that she had qualified for the New England YMCA Championships at Harvard March 25-27.

Our Tory in a dual meet against Branford 1/22/2011 had competed in the 25-yard breast stroke, shaving 2.74 seconds off her previous best time.  She swam a 22.98 final taking a first in the 8 and under and qualifying her for the New England Championships.  Her time was the second best this year in Connecticut.

An incredible coincidence: the girl with the best time, Sophie Murphy, and Tory had something else in common — their fathers, David Murphy and my son Graham, played on the same hockey line for 4 years at Kimball Union, a prep-school in New Hampshire.  The fathers hadn’t seen each other in years and joined forces at a meet in January.  The girls finished 1 and 2.  Tory came in a solid second behind Sophie, great for the kids, great for the fathers and a blessing for this grandfather to witness.

My thoughts of their other winger, Tommy Grady, brought back memories of their line playing against the likes of Mike Richter, Tony Granato and Brian Leitch.

The line of Grady, Rider and Murphy produced more than a bushel basket full of goals and assists.  Between them, they have a total 10 wonderful kids.

Following their scholastic and on-campus hijinks and antics was almost as nail biting as watching them play teams all over New England and New York.

Tory and her parents head for Boston tomorrow.  Dorothy and I will stay home with the three boys and the other set of grandparents anxiously awaiting word from Cambridge!

There will be 500+ kids competing over the weekend.  It will be next to impossible to view the competition in the pool area.  I’ll just have to pace back and forth and wait for word.  It won’t be the first time!

GO TORY!!!