How many of us are lucky enough to still have our grandparents around? Do you ever stop to remember how awesome they are or how much they love you? And it’s with a totally different love than the kind of love your parents give you. There isn’t much you can do wrong that a grandparent won’t forgive.
Some of us are blessed to live near them or grow up with them. Oftentimes, like me and my sister, we are far apart, only seeing them in the summers or every few years for family gatherings. As they get older, more things become harder to do. Spending time with them usually means talking at the table or maybe taking them out for dinner.
The stories they tell you might have been told once or 12 times. They might use the phrase “back when I was young” to start most sentences. Maybe you occasionally get the dirt on what your parents tried to get away with when they were young. Or for many, you hear the stories of war, trouble, or desperate times, that ingrained attitude of “if you don’t work, you don’t eat.”
It’s amazing to me what life experience you can gather by just talking to someone in that generation. They have been thru so much in 75 to 100 years. Everything from love to life to politics, and from the highs to the losses, there really is no event that they haven’t experienced. We can learn a lot.
I can’t say that my grandparents dropped a lot of keepers on me when it came to pearls of wisdom, lol. But they told me about what Hawaii was like before the bombing, what you had to do to get by when you lost a loved one in a car accident or to the war. The jobs they took to have apartments with siblings or friends. What it was like growing up with a large family on a military salary. Jumping off the train tracks into the river, even though mom would have made them do chores for 2 months if she knew. But my favorite was the way they loved, or said he was the most handsome man or she was so beautiful I couldn’t look away. That is lost on our/this generation.
Grandparents come to mind for me every day as I am living with my boyfriends grandma. It’s interesting with our personalities, and we make it work. I am reminded of my moms mom, who passed away a few years ago. I do my best to help, to let her do her do things on her own and not to get upset when we dont see eye to eye. I still haven’t mastered how she likes the dishwasher loaded, but I digress.
Today, my dad’s mom, my Gma, who is the last remaining grandparent, took a fall and has broken her hip. She was alone in her house, and the neighbor found her after a few hours, luxky he did as she did not have her alert with her. She is in surgery right this moment. Unfortunately, my Gma doesn’t handle pain meds well. They cause so many side affects for her. She will have a tough recovery. In her 80s and still fiesty, but broken hips are never a hood thing for the elderly.
To my shame, I haven’t made too much effort as of late to reach out and chat with her. We have Facebook messages, and she drops photos of us randomly. We talk for a few minutes on the phone, maybe 4 times a year for holidays and birthdays. I love my Gma, but distance is a hard thing. It’s very out of sight out of mind.
The fall was not a good thing, but it is a hood reminder that time is fading. It is precious, and everyone has a day when the clock stops. If you are one of the lucky that has grandparents take a few minutes to call them, go see them, give them a hug. Keep the fond memories of them close to your heart and maybe go share a few more laughs and smiles. I’m sending prayers and kisses your way, Gma! 😘
The Distracted Damsel 