Every 4th of July in the UK Catholics celebrate Grandparents Day. It’s a day when we give thanks for the immense love, kindness, warmth and wisdom of the grandparent – and we also remember what our grandparents meant to us. For so many of us our grandparents helped to shape us, to encourage us, to love and support us. They were people who simply just loved us; delighted and took pride in our achievements and in watching our development as human beings. They were, and are, “there for us”.
But what does it mean to be a grandparent? I suppose for me in the first instance it means time …. Time you never had with your own children for you were much too busy carving out a career or trying to juggle life’s pressures. And then there is the complete love you feel for the grandchildren, for their successes and achievements and for times when they have to learn life’s harsh lessons. The time when they say “Did you really do that Grandpa ..?” and you have to admit that you did.
But the most important thing is that your grandchildren teach you and give you so much more than you could ever give them! There’s no training, no preparation, no one ever tells you how to be a good grandparent. You’re on your own. You are a grandparent in your own mould, informed by the example that you were given and guided by the giddy, stupefying, love that you feel for your blood descendants.
So, certainly celebrate Grandparents day! But I really wish that it was grand children day. They really make my heart zing, and they give me so much more than I can ever give them! It’s pure love.
Bob from Cirencester
Grandchildren are God’s way of compensating us for growing old
