Grandma is a robotic replacement for the mother of Timothy, Agatha and tom who died after a long illness leaving them and their father behind in loneliness, fear and insecurity. The father checked on the possibilities of sitters, teachers and even their Aunt Clara who wanted them. Aunt Clara seemed to be a rich, hovering type person. The writer mentions a “big canary-colored limousine” which she drove up to their house. The father felt she would smother the children, and proceeded to find a guardian more suitable.

“Grandma” was chosen as her name because no one could actually replace their real “mother” as named. Grandmothers usually spoil their grandchildren. So, she seemed more to be a mother image.

The family lived in a nice suburb of a large city where you would find sky scrapers. They had a large grassy yard where you could play crochet and a porch to sit on and watch the traffic on the freeway. The writer mentions the lawn, the porch and the freeway with busy traffic. He also mentions the sky scrapers when the helicopter lifted them “up and down” to the top of a building where they went to see about “Grandma”. The time of year was summer and it was hot where they lived.

“Grandma” resembled a part of each of them providing them with the comfort, care and security they felt with their own mother. It was everything a mother tries to be for her children and more. “More” because unlike human mothers, “Grandma” didn’t tire and get angry with them. The writer has her explaining herself: “Run with me on the river path! Someone says, and I run. And at dusk I am not tired, more irritable, so I do not scold out of some tired irritability. My eye stays clear, my voice strong, my hand firm, my attention constant.” She was tolerable beyond imagination. She survived the inevitable circumstances which no human being could withstand. This was shown when she was hit by a car and strewn all over in pieces. Yet she still “lived”. This all made her seem magical, mystical and like a dream.

At the same time, it seemed a part of a myth. The writer mentions “the clouds above our house opened wide and let forth a helicopter like Apollo driving his chariot across mythological skies”. “And the Apollo machine swam down on its own summer breeze…” This could be interpreted jut as a helicopter bringing the machine they ordered. Or it could be understood as a vision of what is wished, of mother, a spirit, coming back to them appearing from the heavens to watch and take care of them until they no longer needed her.

Yet, it was justifiable. Who’s to say it couldn’t be done with computers and the high technology of today or the future. Was someone during those times looking ahead to see what might be possible some day? She was programmed from the start when they first visited Fantoccini – The cock Shop. Their voices were used to create hers. Their actions, attitudes, moods ad characteristics were recorded in order to program her to become all of them in one. This all sounds like AI – artificial intelligence, the knowledge based developed systems. They were told by the salesman to “listen” …” the voices of all kinds of women.” Wait and find just the right tone” …Then he told them to speak and yell. They did and began to hear themselves as they walked through the magical clock shop. Because the voice was made form theirs, was most like that of their mother’s voice.

I believe that the idea and her being was and could be realistic because she was programmed to be them. In other words, she was made up of parts of each of them. Now look at that the other way. Is it not like a true mother? Children are pieces of the human beings from which they were developed. Do they not get their characteristics – looks, voices, etc., from their parents? The writer tells us how much like them she is, how she resembles them which also tells me this is a mother’s way of adjusting to them and them to her. The writer talks about pictures of Grandma – how she looks like Agatha in one and Timothy in another, etc. Her color and structure changed to resemble the one she was attending to at the moment. This was a way of representing a real mother who knows the differences in her children and responds accordingly. She treats each as an individual and according to their own makeup.

“Grandma” found a point of interest for each child and became knowledgeable and interested in the same. This was to win them over, to gain their confidence. Agatha was the last to respond and trust her. Agatha expected Grandma to leave some day, too, as her own mother did. But the only thing that Grandma didn’t do like human mothers was die. This is the second part that made this story mystical. She couldn’t die even when hit by a car on the freeway, scattered in pieces. She remained intact, to live on forever to learn more about human beings, about life.

Isn’t that what religion is all about? Your body dies but your spirit lives on forever waiting for a time when all can be together again. This is what led me to think the ending had two meanings. Grandma had come back to take care of them again in their old age in the same old house. She had waited in a place (like Heaven) where she saw others like herself. It could be that these children lived out their lives, died and went to Heaven where they once again found their mother to be with forever.

Written August 1989.