When I was a kid, I didn’t appreciate my grandparents as much as I should have. It’s a mistake I think most of us make.

Grandparents and grandchildren share a bond. Innately, grandchildren know that there’s a special love between them and their parent’s parents.

Your mom and dad had your back, but your grandparents had your mom and dad’s back. You always knew that.

I can remember my grandmother helping me on a school project for history class. I have fond memories of my other grandmother making the most amazing oatmeal. It was my grandfather who taught me how to use a riding lawnmower. And my other grandfather was a blacksmith who showed me the way around a shop.

My mom’s parents showed God’s love by hosting a number of foster children. My father’s parents were also godly people who helped others in their time of need. Mostly, I remember my grandparents always having time for me.

I believe that there is no purer love than the love between grandparents and grandchildren.

Now that my wife and I have our own grandkids, I understand and can completely appreciate how my grandparents felt about me, and all of my cousins all those years ago.

I was born the oldest grandchild on both sides of the family, so I not only witnessed their love for me, but I watched it grow with each of their other grandchildren. And there were lots of them. I have over 30 cousins.

Whenever I talk with one of my cousins these days, and unfortunately that isn’t as often as it should be, inevitably the topic of one of our grandparents comes up. “Remember how good granny’s biscuits were?” “Remember the percolator being plugged in all day and as they shared coffee, hearing our grandfather tell our grandmother how pretty she was?”

I was 15 when I lost my first grandparent. I was almost 50 when I lost my last one. Over the years, I called the remaining three frequently, and visited them whenever I went back home.

I miss being able to pick up the phone and ask them how to grow potatoes, or a fill in an answer with a question about ancestry.

In the 1980’s, I set up my VHS camcorder and interviewed my three surviving grandparents. I asked them all of the questions you would ask of someone you were meeting for the first time. “What is your full name?” “Where were you born?” “Who are your brothers and sisters?” “Tell me about your children.” “What was your childhood like?”

When my mother’s mom passed away a few years ago at age 89, I pulled the tape out and made a video tribute to her, which we played at her memorial. The video allowed her to tell her own story in her own words. One of the questions I asked at the end of the video is, “What do you want your descendants, whom you’ll never meet, to know?”

She said, “I want them to know the Lord.”

It brought tears, but it also brought happiness and great memories.

My wife and I have six grandchildren. Our love for all of them is endless. My hope is that one day, when they are grandparents, they’ll look back as fondly at our relationship as we do.

 

© 2015 John Moore

For more of John’s musings, visit johnmoore.net/blog