Toothless

Our granddaughter has an imaginary monster buddy called Toothless who lives in the backyard. Toothless is friendly or ferocious based on her whims.

If Mina is happy with me and I say, “I am so scared of Toothless,” she will chuckle, put her hand on my shoulder and assure me that Toothless is “fendly”. If I’ve been the enforcer, she will declare with wide eyes and finger in my face that Toothless is “vewy scawy”.

Let me rewind to tell you the rest of this story.

When Mina’s dad was two years old, he and I were roughhousing and he got me forcefully with the back of his head. He slammed my face and left me with a nose bleed and a damaged tooth.

We forgot about this injury until recently when the tooth started acting up. Now I have an implant which leaves me in the throes of what I fear - a gaping hole smack dab in the middle of my mouth.

Before visiting the oral surgeon, I wanted to confirm a list of questions with Tarun. He had only one concern - could they make sure I wasn’t going to be toothless! No questions about pain swelling or infection, just about the way I will look. He played right into my fears!

Now I have a retainer but I cannot eat or drink with it. Like seriously, which idiot invented this?!

At first the embarrassment of a missing tooth sent me into a fetal position and then I remembered what my mother said after she had her first stroke. “I did not do this to myself, my body did it to me.” She was the toughest cookie I know and not for a single moment did she convey any embarrassment about her neurological deficits.

I am channeling Ma by telling you that I did not do this to myself. I won’t be embarrassed to take off my retainer when I eat with you. Please don’t be embarrassed for me. It is what it is and life is too short to worry about a temporary gap in the mouth.

The upside of the missing tooth?

Toothless is no longer imaginary!

She is real and she lives indoors. She’s definitely funny looking without her retainer but she adores Mina. She loves to take Mina to the park, cook with her, read her books, play slides on the stairs, take her swimming and snuggle. She’s not scawy at all. And what a blessing that Toothless is not cross-eyed and pink with two horns.

Cheers to all the grandmas out there. We will continue to be a force to be reckoned with, teeth or no teeth!