The Story of Mag and the Fishing Pole

Auntie Dot’s friend Magdalena joined us at the cabin when we spent the weekend there a few days ago.  Magdalena (Mag) is truly one of the kindest people I know.  She’s extraordinarily generous with all of her gifts. She’s an amazing seamstress and made Squirmy  and Alex some amazing receiving blankets.  She knits beautiful things.  She cooks amazing food.  And she loves kids.  In particular, Mag and The Banana are thick, thick friends it seems.

They have quite a bit in common, even though The Banana is a preschooler and Mag is grown up.  Not only are they both rather witty, but they both love shoes, sunglasses, and a nice glass of milk.  Mag plays pretend cell phone with The Banana for hours.  The Banana helps Mag cook.  The Banana follows Mag around like glue whenever Mag is present.  Mag is super patient.  She  thinks The Banana is quite humorous.  The Banana has Mag sort of wrapped around her finger, and that’s OK.  It was really great at the cabin because all of the cousins were older than The Banana, or younger, so The Banana really loved her special time with Mag.

Mag is also a tremendously good sport.  She swam in the lake with all the kids, and even though I don’t see her as a person who would really enjoy slimy fish, she spent a lot of time taking fish off fishing pole hooks for kids, and stayed super calm even though fishing line was flying in all directions and getting tangled up together all the time.  She managed to avoid getting hooked herself by the ends of all the wild fishing poles.

One evening Mr. Sneaky Pants, Mag and the Banana were hanging out on the end of the dock.  The Banana’s fishing pole slid out of her hands, off the dock and into the lake.  She was distraught.  Mag, being the amazing Mag that she is, jumped off the dock into the murky evening water and peered down into the seaweed, looking for the fishing pole.  Just then, Mr. Sneaky Pants caught a fish.  It was flopping, flapping and dangling on the end of the fishing line.  He was excited.  The fish was (not) so excited.  He dangled the fish right on Mag’s shoulders (Gross!)  and shouted things like, “LOOK MAG!  LOOK AT MY FISH!  MAG!  LOOK AT MY FISH!  MAG!  MY FISH NEEDS TO GET OFF MY HOOK!  MAG THE FISH LIKES YOU!”  He wasn’t being mean.  Mag took it all in stride.  Dr. Peds and I yelled at him to NOT put the fish on Mag.

Dr. Peds started walking down the dock, when Mag located The Banana’s fishing pole.  She bent down and pulled it out of the muck.  It was pretty heavy.  When she got it out of the water we all started laughing!  The Banana’s fishing pole had caught a fish while it was on the bottom of the lake.  It was really very silly, and we all were laughing hysterically.  Dr. Peds took Mr. SP’s fish off the hook, and Mag freed The Banana’s fish, and then it was business as usual on the end of the dock, where the grown ups tried to perilously avoid injury from fishing poles and sharp hooks.