Be the GrandmaThey Call Every Sunday

1. She lives 600 miles away from her only granddaughter

Carol is 68. Her granddaughter Olivia is 6 and lives 600 miles away, in another state. Carol sees her twice a year, when the flights work out.

In between, there are the video calls. Carol props up the tablet, puts on a nice blouse, has her questions ready. And on the other end, Olivia sits on the couch and plays a game on her own tablet.

“Yes, Grandma. No, Grandma. Bye, Grandma.”

Three minutes, sometimes four. Then the screen goes dark, and the kitchen is very quiet.

Every grandmother who lives far away knows that silence.

2. The other grandma lives ten minutes away

Olivia’s other grandma lives ten minutes from her house. She picks her up from school. She’s at every ballet recital. And for Olivia’s birthday, she showed up with a pink dollhouse taller than Olivia.

Carol had mailed a package too. A sweater she’d picked out for weeks, and a puzzle. When Olivia’s mom sent photos of the party, Carol spotted her package in one of them. Unopened, in the corner, behind a plant.

She told herself it didn’t matter. It mattered.

You can’t compete with someone who’s always there. Carol knew that. She just didn’t know what else to do.

3. The sentence she was never supposed to hear

In October, Carol called to ask about Thanksgiving. Olivia’s mom said goodbye, but the call didn’t end. The phone was still lying on the kitchen counter.

And then Carol heard Olivia in the background:

“Mom, do we HAVE to go to boring Grandma’s?”

Carol hung up. She went into the bathroom, sat down on the edge of the tub and cried with her hand over her mouth, so nobody would hear.

“I wasn’t angry at her. She’s six. I was scared. Scared that I’d become someone she only knows from a screen.”

Boring Grandma. Two words, and she couldn’t stop hearing them.

4. What her friend Linda showed her on the porch

A week later, Carol had coffee with her friend Linda and told her everything. Linda didn’t say much. She took out her phone and played a video.

In it, her grandson Jake, 5, sat on the floor with a picture book. On the cover: Jake. Not a cartoon boy who happens to share his name. Him. His face, his hair, his crooked smile. And he was shouting: “Grandma, I’m in here too! And here!”

Then Linda said the sentence Carol would later repeat to everyone:

“You don’t need to buy her something that blinks. Give her something that exists only once.”

Carol watched the video three times. Then she asked: “Where did you get that?”

5. “I’m not good with technology.” It took her five minutes.

The book was from Miracles. Carol was sure it would be complicated. “I’m not good with technology,” she told Linda. “My grandson has to set up my TV.”

It took her five minutes:

1. She uploaded one photo of Olivia from her phone.
2. She typed in her name and picked a story: The Unicorn, because Olivia loves unicorns.
3. Seconds later she saw a free preview of the finished book. Olivia was the hero, with her real face, on every single page.

Carol didn’t pay anything to see it. She sat at her kitchen table with her reading glasses on and looked at that preview for a long time. Then she ordered.

Right now there’s up to 40% off: the books start at $34.99. Every book is printed in the USA and ships within 3 days.

6. The first page, in her own words

Every Miracles book opens with a personal dedication on the first page. Carol thought about hers for two days. This is what she wrote:

“For my Olivia. I live far away, but I think about you every single day. Whenever you open this book, I’m right there with you. All my love, Grandma Carol.”

She wrapped it in gold paper with a red ribbon and packed it in her suitcase for Christmas.

A toy says “here’s a present.” A dedication says “here’s who loves you.”

7. “Grandma... is that me?”

On Christmas Eve, Olivia unwrapped it. She looked at the cover and went completely quiet. Then she looked up at Carol:

“Grandma… is that me?”

She took the book to bed that night. And the night after. When Carol flew home, the book stayed in Olivia’s bed.

Then came something Carol hadn’t dared to hope for. The next Sunday, the tablet rang. It was Olivia, without anyone asking her to, with the book on her lap: “Grandma, I want to read you a page.”

She has called every Sunday since. She reads Carol one page, sometimes two. Then she wants to know what Grandma had for lunch, and when she’s coming again.

“Boring Grandma” hasn’t come up since.

Our verdict: the gift for grandparents who live far away

The Gift Report

Editor’s Choice 2026

Excellent · 9.4/10

Distance doesn’t make a grandma boring. But a toy from far away gets lost among the toys from nearby. A book where your grandchild is the hero, with your words on the first page, doesn’t. Over 25,000 Miracles books have been gifted so far.

Questions grandparents ask