WHAT JOY TO BE HAD!

I am just getting used to being a grandfather. To me ‘grandfather, or grandpa’ is a title that has to be earned, and only in the best possible ways. When I think about my grandmother Frances and my grandmother Mary in Brooklyn so many years ago, and how from my grandmothers to my granddaughter, there is a wonderful legacy of love.

I recently felt the joy of two friends of mine becoming grandparents and how excited they are, and there is nothing else in life I need, or want to be! No amount of money or goods could manufacture the joy from one little child for an old guy like me. It makes me happy to be old, to know that I passed down along the line, family history, traits and even traditions. Life is good.

Every Sunday we get to see my beautiful granddaughter Darby Shea: La Principessa I call her, and indeed she is a princess, beautiful beyond any words I can use to describe her or the feeling of knowing I’m her grandfather. It makes me proud, and now I know what others are feeling and how glorious these little children are to have been born through love itself!

Of course I have to share the time on ‘Face time’ with the Little Woman, but hey, she is experiencing what I feel too! Of course, if you want to hear what old fools sound like, then listen to us as we call out Darby by name and she looks around. If she responds in any fashion, suddenly our voices get higher: the pitch exceeds what we thought we could even muster! Constantly we call out her name, and constantly we look for her to respond, and constantly she brings up a little bit of what she ate, then looks around, taking in life for the first time ever, becoming aware of herself, knowing her parents and trying to figure out what those two nuts in the I-pad are all excited about.

I find it difficult not writing about her everyday on this blogue, but it is easy for me to think about her all the time, and what a wonderful gift I have in my life.

I used to picture a grandfather with a white beard and hair, smoking a pipe and wearing a red flannel shirt and coveralls, giving love and advice. Well I look in the mirror and that is not what I’m seeing! This guy is wearing jeans, with a T-shirt with a slogan on it and driving around in a Prius! The only advice I’m capable of is: Stay out of the rain, so much for images. And grandma? What about the lady I married? She is not a Grandma! No bun for a hairdo, no sensible shoes and no apron!