I could be devoting this column to all kinds of neat comments regarding the exciting news this community has just received regarding a mega munch project out at Boundary Dam, but there are spaces in this edition that will cover that, so instead I want to talk about grandparents.
I won't be one of course, and that's probably a good thing. I don't believe I'd make a very good grandpop.
What irks me sometimes though, is the fact that I never got to know either of my grandfathers. They both died relatively young, I believe just a few months apart, while I was still trying to master the art of operating a tricycle. So I never really knew either of them.
What double irks me is the fact that I hadn't deployed my limited reporter's skills in search of just who my grandfathers were while my parents were still alive.
Oh sure, I heard a few stories about them, but nothing detailed. Apparently my maternal side grandpop was quick to anger and quick to get over it and was also quick of wit. He worked as a station agent for both our national railways. It seems he worked for one for almost 20 years, got angry about something they were going to make him do, so he quit them and joined the other team and carried on.
The other guy was a jeweler and his gig wasn't easy either. Try 小蓝视频 a jeweler during the Depression!
My grandpop on my mother's side was father to four girls. The other grandguy was a father to three boys.
I got to know both of my grandmothers very well, learned the nuances of their lives, even helped provide care for one after she suffered a series of strokes and memory losses. She carried on with a great deal of faith and humour and as much dignity as she could muster under trying circumstances.
The other grandmom went out in a special care home suffering from dementia. We didn't call it Alzheimer's then, but she left us also with dignity and a smile, plus many great memories of her character and personality.
One had been divorced, the other had been an orphan. Those were my grandmothers. But granddads, I never learned much. I didn't know their brothers or sisters, I don't recall where they started life or where they went to school and I suppose I could get on one of those family chronology sites and do a little digging, but I know I won't do that, and besides it wouldn't be the same as learning about them first hand, or even second hand.
I guess our family wasn't big on historical memorabilia, so I look at photos of the two grandfathers I never really knew, and sorta wonder what it would have been like to have known them as well as I knew my grandmothers. And then I realized that I probably didn't even know my grandmothers as well as I say I did, if I hadn't asked them about their husbands (even the divorced one). So that is totally my error and regret.
So the lesson today, dear diary, is, if you still have some grandparents hanging around, get to know them. If you don't, you'll regret it later. They'll have a lot to tell you, and a lot to give you in terms of advice and practical living suggestions along with a sincere smile and because they probably don't have to live with you, they'll probably like you and that's reason enough to pay them a little homage and attention.
That's all I have to say about that this week.
