'Double blessing' for 41-year-old grandma

Renae and Novar Excell were an outstanding pair at Thursday's launch of the Ity and Fancy Cat Show Season 3, held at the Knutsford Court Hotel, New Kingston. They stuck together - although there were times when she was holding him in check - and it was clear that Novar really looks up to Renae.

Literally. He is three years old, going on four, and she is his 41-year-old grandmother - and very proud to be called the 'G' word.

It is a huge turnaround, as Excell tells The Sunday Gleaner, "I was not a happy camper during the pregnancy. I kept a straight malice." Having had his father and only child, Novar, when she was 18 years old and had just finished one year of college, the last thing she wanted for him was to be in the same position. Not after she had struggled as a single parent to "get my son through, to do the nice things - prep school, Disney".

Then, in his third year in college, Novar told her about the pregnancy and the "straight malice" began. It ended with a cry at her door one evening. "I heard a knocking at my door and I thought 'Who's coming to see me?' I heard a baby crying, I opened the door and there he was, just a little bit of something. I just took him (from his mother Keisha). I wasn't really greeting them, but I took him. I took my grandson and he stopped crying right away."

Since then, "him a me heartstring, me joy, him is everything to me. I am enjoying it. It is a luxury for me. It is like is my baby. We have a wonderful relationship, no joke."

He calls her grandma, which Excell says she actually encou-raged, telling Novar, "Come to grandma".

There are times when the adult-child roles are reversed. Last weekend, Renae slipped and hit her head on a wall at home, leaving a cut on her scalp. When she showed her grandson, he solemnly told her, "You must be more careful, grandma." Then he said, "Let me kiss it for you." And he duly blew on the wound and kissed it, just as she would have done for him.

Excell says she does not feel like a grandmother. Neither does she look like the stereotypical one. "I go out with him and when he says 'Grandma', people do a doubletake and say, 'You really are a grandmother?'". For her, it's a double blessing, as, "I think of him as my son and grandson".

- Mel Cooke

Renae and Novar Excell were an outstanding pair at Thursday's launch of the Ity and Fancy Cat Show Season 3, held at the Knutsford Court Hotel, New Kingston. They stuck together - although there were times when she was holding him in check - and it was clear that Novar really looks up to Renae.

Literally. He is three years old, going on four, and she is his 41-year-old grandmother - and very proud to be called the 'G' word.

It is a huge turnaround, as Excell tells The Sunday Gleaner, "I was not a happy camper during the pregnancy. I kept a straight malice." Having had his father and only child, Novar, when she was 18 years old and had just finished one year of college, the last thing she wanted for him was to be in the same position. Not after she had struggled as a single parent to "get my son through, to do the nice things - prep school, Disney".

Then, in his third year in college, Novar told her about the pregnancy and the "straight malice" began. It ended with a cry at her door one evening. "I heard a knocking at my door and I thought 'Who's coming to see me?' I heard a baby crying, I opened the door and there he was, just a little bit of something. I just took him (from his mother Keisha). I wasn't really greeting them, but I took him. I took my grandson and he stopped crying right away."

Since then, "him a me heartstring, me joy, him is everything to me. I am enjoying it. It is a luxury for me. It is like is my baby. We have a wonderful relationship, no joke."

He calls her grandma, which Excell says she actually encou-raged, telling Novar, "Come to grandma".

There are times when the adult-child roles are reversed. Last weekend, Renae slipped and hit her head on a wall at home, leaving a cut on her scalp. When she showed her grandson, he solemnly told her, "You must be more careful, grandma." Then he said, "Let me kiss it for you." And he duly blew on the wound and kissed it, just as she would have done for him.

Excell says she does not feel like a grandmother. Neither does she look like the stereotypical one. "I go out with him and when he says 'Grandma', people do a doubletake and say, 'You really are a grandmother?'". For her, it's a double blessing, as, "I think of him as my son and grandson".

- Mel Cooke