I was adopted 11 years ago over Thanksgiving weekend. It doesn’t matter that I was already in my 40’s. I never had a grandmother and Nanny came along and “adopted” me as a “grand” (there are many “greats” now) even a few months before her eldest grandson and I eloped.
She celebrated a birthday yesterday as my Dad did a few weeks ago. He wrote from overseas that “everybody needs a Nanny” and that I’m lucky to have one. That I am, every day. We tried to make a special experience for her last night at a concert and I hope it went OK. Neither she nor my father need physical gifts, an experience fits the bill. Unfortunately Dad just went to opening night and gala at the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow so there’s not much for his eldest daughter to do in that arena.
My grandmothers both died before I was a year old. I’ve vague memories of “Bye Bye Blackbird” but that’s it, and I haven’t even tried to play it on my guitar. My Dad’s father died a few weeks before I was born but I knew Papa a bit until he died 30 years ago.
Grandparents are important. I believe they show a child stability, kindness, forgiveness and a sense of history. Dad wrote (email) this morning and told me that his grandmother was born in 1865 and his mother in 1898, Those were certainly different times.
What is interesting is that half of my husband’s family grew up less than 60 miles away from my maternal family in Switzerland, both German-speaking. Sprechen zie Deutsch? Danke. Let’s try English now as it is the language of computers and cell phones!
I know kids don’t read this blog, so involve them in your life and that of your parents. It will serve them well in the future. Even if they caution you to have your husband spent 40 years at a company and get a gold watch, I hedged there saying, Nanny, those kind of jobs do not exist anymore….. Dee
Cooking with Dee 