I am truly blessed, my life is so full of love, especially love from my grand-daughters - they are the light of my life. How can you not smile when your very sick nearly a teenager grand-daughter rings you with her croaky voice to tell you she loves you. How can you not smile when your nearly 18 month grand-daughter squeals with delight when you arrive to visit and runs around and then launches herself into your arms for a cuddle. And smile I do, but sometimes there is a tinge of sadness in my smile - sadness for the 2 grandmothers who miss out. My eldest grand-daughter has no contact with her other grandmother due to circumstances which I won't go into here and my youngest grand-daughter's other grandmother (Nanny) lives on the other side of the large continent that is Australia and so gets to see very little of Immy. I have enough love to give both of them, but every now and then I feel bad that I am the only one who has this joy in my life.
My paternal grandmother also missed out on 4 of her grandchildren - my aunt married a man who joined the diplomatic service and they spent much of their lives overseas in other countries with their children and probably only got back to Perth once every 2-3 years. I wonder if she was saddened by this fact or whether she gave us extra love to compensate.
My mother has missed out on my brother's children for the last 7 1/2 years due to a family rift (his decision not hers) and so missed their teenage years and seeing them mature in young adults - I know this saddens her.
So I don't take my grandchildren for granted, I cherish every moment with them, just as I do with my adult children - family - they mean the world to me and having them in my life makes me a better person.
I give thanks they are here with me and so fully in my life. They keep me smiling.
Yes, enjoy your grandchildren, especially while they are still young. I was blessed with having 6 of them (4 girls and 2 boys) and now to gorgeous great-granddaughters whom I don't see often enough.
ReplyDeleteOh sure, I have been saddened by missing out on the teenage years of my sons's 2 children and do cherish a letter his daughter wrote at Christmas (not just to me but other family members as well)' evem so it was nice to receive it after so many years. I think what has made me feel really sad is never having any response to birthday gifts sent but I think that is partly the way of the modern world.
Never having had grandparents I don't really know what it must be like for our grandchildren but I can only hope that I gave mine as much love as I could and I have no doubts whatsoever that you most certainly do. You are indeed fortunate.