Yes, Gill and Grant are, in fact, seeing each other frequently of late. But he is not in the small entourage that arrives with Grant at the children's hospital.
She's coming to visit with kids who can't go outside on this sunny fall day. Some can't leave their beds. Some are only days old, born prematurely and unable to survive on their own. Others have IV packs keeping them constant company as they move through the halls.
The singer and mother of three kneels, sits, smiles, talks softly, holds, strokes. She sings along with a few who know one of her songs. She takes an old guitar and serenades others. She thanks them all for coming out to see her, for sharing their smiles with her.
Like Minnie Pearl the late Sarah Cannon, for whom her youngest daughther, Sarah, is named Grant uses her celebrity to bring comfort to the suffering, and to raise the profile of those in need.
The visit also affords Grant an opportunity to announce that the hospital is lead sponsor and one of the beneficiaries of her upcoming Christmas concerts with the Nashville Symphony, Dec. 7 and 8, at the Gaylord Entertainment Center.
On her third annual national Christmas tour, with special guests Michael W. Smith and Point of Grace, Grant will play 19 cities. Only Nashville, her hometown, will get two nights. Tickets for the concerts at the arena go on sale at 10 a.m. today at all TicketMaster outlets.
Last year, the Christmas tour bypassed Nashville. It was "time to take a breath" after playing 12 sold-out shows in five years, Grant said in an official statement. A Southern girl knows better than to wear out her welcome, she reasoned.
But Grant will admit now that there were other concerns. Her marriage to Chapman was in its final months. Following "a lengthy state of separation under the same roof," the couple was undergoing counseling with two local pastors from September through December.
Playing the Christmas concert in her hometown, she felt, would be difficult at best.
In February, Grant moved out of the couple's home on Moran Road in Franklin. After another month spent settling questions of how they would divide households and parenting responsibilities, Chapman and Grant filed for divorce. In June, after 16-1/2 years of marriage, the divorce became final.
"It was all incredibly respectful and private," Grant says during an interview at her home in a shady, upscale West End neighborhood. Already, she has made three trips to school during the morning, delivering kids, forgotten eyeglasses and newly washed gym clothes.
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