What does 1 Samuel 1:26 mean?

The moment has come. Was Hannah heartbroken to leave her boy Samuel with the priest Eli at the temple of the Lord in Shiloh to fulfill her vow (1 Samuel 1:11)? The text does not say so, though we wouldn't be surprised to hear that she had some sadness about letting Samuel go. Still, the only emotion we see is deep gratitude and joy while she is explaining to Eli who she and the boy are.

A few years earlier, Hannah had come to the temple at Shiloh with her husband as well as his second wife and their children. Hannah had no children and her husband's other wife intentionally provoked her. In her distress, Hannah went to the temple and poured out her soul to the Lord in prayer. She also promised that if God gave her a son, she would return that son to the Lord for his entire life. When Eli, the temple priest, saw Hannah in prayer, He thought she was drunk. He confronted Hannah and learned that she was praying. Eli blessed her and affirmed her prayer (1 Samuel 1:1–18). Here, Hannah is telling Eli she is the woman with whom he had that interaction.

Hannah calls the old priest "my lord," a term of respect (1 Samuel 1:15–16, 18), and reveals that she is the woman who stood in his presence just a few years earlier praying so intensely to the Lord. The text does not tell us whether she reminded Eli that he thought she was drunk, but Hannah seems to think Eli remembers her.