Phone Calls and Rhubarb

We kept in close communication with my Grandma Speas, and she with us. It was a rare day that a phone call was not placed to check in on each other.
 
For some unknown reason my sister became tongue tied when on the telephone. When Mom asked her to call to check on Grandma, Sandi would invariably ask, "But I don't know what to say; what should I talk about?" 

Grandma waiting for a call

Mom's standard and may I say brilliant response did 
not rescue, but instead pushed her daughter to think for herself. She would chuckle and suggest, "Ask her if she thinks the frost hurt the rhubarb." Sandi would roll her eyes and come up with a topic of her own.

This mothering technique was effective, maybe too effective, for by the time Sandi became a teenager she couldn't seem to stop thinking of things to say while talking on the phone.