Investing in Grandparents
National Grandparent's Day is September 12th

The car was packed and I was on my way to Texas. Before I pulled onto the interstate, I had one last stop to make. I had to say goodbye to my grandparents. It was somewhere between Grammy’s best wishes and Grampy’s “I’m sorry to see you go. I’ll miss you,” that I started to tear up. You see, my grandfather has Alzheimer’s disease. My goodbye just happened to come in a moment of lucidity. That was a blessing – he can’t always remember my name. I want to cry just thinking about it.

When I was a child, I idolized my grandparents. My dad’s parents lived next door to me and I spent hours at their house. They were always busy – Grammy would lunch with her best friend after playing tennis in the morning with Grampy. Afternoons would include yard work or hikes through the forested park nearby. But there was always time to sit next to them on the couch and read a book. They always made time. As I got older, they became the sounding boards to many of the thoughts I didn’t share with my parents. We discussed politics and gender roles, eating habits and dreams of the future. They were an irreplaceable influence on my life. I remember praying for Grammy when she had skin cancer and crying when Grampy had health issues of his own.

I took them for granted and all too soon, my schedule didn’t let me spend time with them. I was too busy hanging out with friends or going to college to talk to them. My visits became more sporadic. It wasn’t until my grandmother broke her hip that I started spending more time with her again. That’s when I realized, not only was she my friend, I was hers. She valued the relationship more than I did. That’s when our relationship changed again. I wanted to invest in her like she had in me. She was one of the first people to get a proof copy of my first book. The one I would take to the nursery or scheme with to paint her front room. We would talk about her world travels and she taught me the housekeeping skills that I never wanted to learn as an adolescent. She was the one I took to see “Australia” at midnight and “Alice in Wonderland” late in the afternoon. The roles were reversed but it made it more special.

My grandparents were some of the most influential people in my life. They gave me my love for travel, my work ethic, and my love for all things PBS. From my grandmother, I get my fierce sense of independence and from my grandfather, the love of practical jokes and laughing. I wouldn’t be me without them.  Take the time to show them more of the love that you remember from your childhood. I can guarantee you won’t regret it.

—Caitlin Muir is a freelance writer. You can follow her at www.caitlinmuir.wordpress.com or on Twitter @scribblinghappy.