I’m Vera, and I love being a grandmother. I am grateful that I have lived in the same house as my now 22-year-old granddaughter Elza throughout her life. I was there to listen to her during her high school and college years. Even more importantly, her grandfather was the most stable adult in her life as a young child when her parents worked. He picked her up from day care and school, played with her and listened to her read out loud every day. On the occasion of his 80th birthday, she wrote:
I have been thinking a lot about the wonderful gifts you have given me. A love of learning, a joyful creative way of looking at the world and the belief that I can do anything that is almost unquestionable.
My relationship with my 7-year-old twin granddaughters is different as they live in Seattle, a five-hour flight away. Sadly, their mother’s mother died before they were born, and their two grandfathers are not in good health. My daughter-in-law, who loved her two grandmothers dearly, wants to encourage her daughters to have a strong relationship with me. During the Covid time, I held ‘story time with Granny’ sessions on Zoom. Now I fly to see them as often as possible and experience sadness when I leave.
There are so many ways of being a grandparent depending on the circumstances. I experience joy and satisfaction, as well as sadness that I will not be alive to see them mature. But I can offer love and wisdom while I am with them.
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Published in issue 87. Accurate at the time this issue went to print. Photo not of author.
