My 8-year-old adopted granddaughter was left at home while my son and his wife took their biological son. She called me at 2:00 AM crying, ‘Why Grandpa?’ I booked last-minute tickets and within 12 hours we crashed their vacation!

I spent the morning photographing the house and the absence of Daisy’s presence in the family areas.

I went into her bedroom and saw a drawing she had made of a family where three people were in red and one was in blue.

I turned on my recorder and noted the visual evidence of her exclusion from the family unit.

At noon, Daisy woke up and I told her that we were leaving the house to go find some lunch.

“We are going to a diner that serves pie for dessert,” I announced to get her excited.

We went to a local place with vinyl booths and the smell of coffee and fried food.

Daisy ordered a grilled cheese and a chocolate milkshake with extra whipped cream.

The waitress asked if she had a good grandpa, and Daisy replied that I was okay while looking at me with a smirk.

“I heard your teacher emailed me about the school play where you were the narrator,” I said during lunch.

Her face changed and she told me that she had eight lines if you counted the welcome.

“Did your father come to see the play?” I asked while I ate my meatloaf.

She said he left after her second line because Toby had hockey practice and Amber stayed with Toby.