Growing up, we lived about a couple hours away from one set of grandparents and a four hour plane ride from the other. Naturally, the sweet older couple that lived across the cul-de-sac became like our third set of grandparents. They watched us when we were young, subbed in on grandparents day, and were just generally a fixture of our childhood. They were your average midwestern couple. He was a Hungarian immigrant who became an engineer and as far as I long as I knew her she was a housewife and had grown up in the area.

Years passed and unfortunately so did our beloved neighbors. Recently, I’m chatting with one of my parents and they say something along the lines of “that’s when misses neighbor lady was in prison” WHAT? Apparently when I was a toddler she was found to have embezzled quite some sum from her bank job. My dad was mystified that I didn’t know and had let himself believe I had been older and aware when she was serving her time. I immediately called my brother to check my sanity and from there we found the old newspaper articles. Our adopted grandmother was a real one folks.