I cannot promise that I will be there until the end of their lives, but I can promise them I will love them until the end of mine.
A New Year. Three weeks in. Nothing has seemed to change from the end of 2021. Covid is still raging, and the beginning of this year is simply like the end of last year…only worse.
Life as Practice Manager at our medical practice has been busy not only from Patient Covid questions, constantly changing Health guidelines and protocols and our ‘normal’ General medicine, but also from admin staff on annual leave, doctors on annual leave and yes it has been extremely eventful! But amidst the mess, the questions, the stress, the myriad of patients, the unknown, there was such a highlight to my last week.
I had my grandchildren!
Being a grandparent is one of the most rewarding and fulfilling times of your life. Being a grandparent is possibly the best reward to arrive with age…. with getting older. It compensates marvellously for the assaults of the ageing process and in some ways represents the fulfilment of years of one’s own parenting. You get to witness your children pass on the parenting techniques they learned from you, and you get to see the world through your grandchildren’s eyes for the first time. Seeing my own children become parents was the most unexpected and profound experience.
Grandchildren enter life as a great mystery. I mean, who are these smaller people?
Family resemblances on all sides may appear fleetingly, or remain, but the real joy is in discovering completely new and unique individuals and it was quite interesting to watch the dynamics between the four cousins.
The age difference from four to eleven made things at time a little stretched but each child had their own personality traits and attributes overflowing with mixtures of quiet, sensitive, thinking, loud, funny, lively, and at times display of strong wills, brassy and sassy, but also shy, soft, and happy and cheeky, (in an enjoyable way) Even with the niggling and moaning which obviously occurred at times, all four personalities, no matter what time of day, no matter what they were doing, mixed well together. It was such a treasure to see these different blends, these different people, these individual young humans work together. And to just want to be with us!
Raising children is quite different today and vastly different than when we raised ours. Naturally, when I raised my kids, it was different from when my parents raised us. But being a grandparent gives me the joy of simply loving them (even when we reminded one child that we did not like their behaviour at that point, but we still loved them); of playing with them, the simple joy of being with them, sitting on the floor with puzzles or games, or reading a story, or jumping through waves at the beach. And in their grandfather’s (Papa) case- the mischief- ” in helping them get into mischief they had not thought of yet”. Believe me, at times this week, I was not sure how many grandchildren I had- four or five?
What I do know that this bond between myself as a grandparent and my grandchildren is extremely special and quite hard to put into words, because to me, being a grandparent is not one little thing, it is a million little things!
For our family, this week was even more special as it has been so long since we have been together. No, not just because of work limitations, but rather, with the closure of the Queensland border, (even though we live only 35minutes south), and the many, many months endured of forced isolation away from my son and daughter and their beautiful families. But eventually, the time came for that to end with the arrival of all grandchildren to stay with Grammy and Papa this week. And we both relished every moment we had. So many things explored, of beach, sand, and water play, of confidence in their swimming abilities when surfing-both body and board, ice-cream afternoon outings, craft and art times, remote control cars, playdough, Wii games, creating their own pizzas and burritos, of Nintendo switch quiet time at night (was that for us or for them?) of Papa read bedtime stories – all just some part of what we chose to do with our grandchildren that week.
Personally, I do not remember so much about my grandparents and what they did together and what they said. I certainly do not remember actually doing anything with them and I don’t have any wonderful memories to treasure. My husband does and regales stories of his childhood with his Grammy. I guess that is why for me it is so important to be that grandmother that I never had! And a wonderful week I….we had! As they drove away from our house, to meet their parents again, I really cried when they left! My house seemed so quiet. So Empty.
But now it is Sunday and tomorrow it will be back to work to my world of management and education, of the realities of sickness, issues and questions, staff concerns and needs, doctors’ requirements and requests – of new guidelines and protocols to implement…the never-ending story of medical practice in this unknown infectious Covid world we know today.
But what I do know is that I head back to work with a smile on my face. Because I will treasure each memory, the laughter and the tears, each day, each individual and combined time shared together with our four grandchildren in this one short week together.
My family.