Musings: What it means to be a grandparent
Bill Eddings with three of his seven grandchildren. Credit: Linda Eddings
Another Grandparents Day, celebrated Sunday, has come and gone. What defines a grandparent or grandparenting?
It can be received as a blessing or viewed as a curse. A title that’s welcomed or a designation that’s shunned. It’s the same stone with many facets. Some see themselves aging while others look at their legacy.
Some wait and hope for a grandchild’s call, yet others are inundated with caring for grandkids. Some are sought out, and others are shut out.
To some, it’s a second chance at parenthood, and to others, it’s a chance to be obscure — a way to be remembered or an item to be forgotten. A chance to spoil the kids or to have your chances spoiled.
It’s a rite of passage that becomes a frame of mind. A journey to be embraced or a path to be forgotten. Mine has been an awesome and intriguing experience of wonder, laughter, excitement and restraint, and the process continues.
The experiences I encounter forever keep me in a learning phase. Whether we get the accolades or receive the blame, we all try to do our best in the end, and we always mean well.
I penned a verse some years ago that gives me perspective:
As I gaze upon me now, in the autumn of my days,
Although I am not wealthy, I’m rich in many ways.
In God I have my fortune, the bride she is my treasure.
My kids are priceless sapphires whose value can’t be measured.
And the children of my children are coins of precious gold,
Reminders of the affluence that’s mine as I grow old.
— Bill Eddings, Massapequa
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