Sometimes I find it hard to believe that I have attained the age of 83 and that I have three grown grandsons. Before I became a grandmother I was not anxious for that stage of my life, perhaps because I thought it connoted gray hair and slowing down of all things fun. I simply did not like the term "granny". I was so busy with my job and my own life that it did not occur to me that having a grandchild would enrich my life and fill it with joy.
SO, I was caught completely off guard when, on Christmas day, 25 years ago my daughter and son-in-law insisted on coming up on Christmas day. I had resisted their urging to let them come up as the pump in the well was not working and we had no water in the house. Also, on Christmas day, no hope of getting it repaired. But insisting that they wanted to come up anyway I just gave in. Soon after their arrival that day my daughter handed me a small card. I thought it was for a gift and when I opened it and saw what it said I burst out crying ! Not the reaction they had hoped for !!!! But I was overwhelmed with some inner feeling which I cannot explain, a feeling of awe and joy. For I was informed that I was to become a grandmother!
In due time when that little boy arrived, I first saw him in a hospital room in the arms of his fraternal grandfather. His only living grandfather, as my daughters father was lost to us when she was 16 years old. I was the only grandmother as his fraternal grandmother was deceased also. So there we were, just as pleased as if this were our very own child, perhaps a more intense connection than with our own children,as we viewed his birth from a different perspective.
This firstborn grandchild gave me my name and guess what, it was not Granny, or Mamaw, or Nanny or Grandmother at all. It happened this way. When he was just a little tyke his mother had him sitting at their bay window looking out , waiting for me to arrive by car. Suddenly he called to his mother, "Bubbie is here". No one knows where he came up with that name. It is a name Jewish children call their grandmothers. And I LOVE it. !! Sometimes it is shortened to Bubs. I think it fits me perfectly.
So many memories come flooding in regarding this first grandson. He had been home only a day from the hospital when his mother had to go back into the hospital for a problem. I had come down to see if I could help out. His father came walking in with that little babe wrapped up in a blanket and cradled in his arm like a football, and completely in control. His every action exuded confidence. Bubbie was not needed.
In my mind's eye I can still see him ,a few months old, on a blanket on the floor of their bonus room. Christmas music was filling the air. Dimitri was on his back with arms and legs wiggling about as he responded to his uncle Bruce cooing and talking to him. His eyes so bright and he cooing back to this attention of his uncle on his hands and knees, bending over him. It was hard to tell who was responding to whom!!
The next spring he was at my house around Easter. I had a wind up bunny that hopped all about. I put it on the floor in front of Dimitri. He was lying on his stomach. His reaction was to arch his back, wave his arms about excitedly and kick his legs wildly. His eyes were as big as saucers as he rocked and squealed with glee at the sight of the bunny hopping around in front of him.
And now, in 2009 that firstborn is far from home, in graduate school starting on his chosen life work. Working toward a doctorate, he wants to be a college professor, like his great, great grandfather before him. This great, great grandfather had a love of teaching. He took in students who could not pay and tutored and fed them in his home. He helped to establish Gilead Baptist College in Kentucky. That school is now defunct but the teaching he did there lives on through all of his students.
So time has a way of keeping on. I do not view it as a sadness, but as inevitable progress, hopefully an improvement with each generation. Proverbs 3:13 says "Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding". I think that is what education does for us. The better we understand, the wiser we are and better will our choices be. So, I wish my grandson Godspeed in his chosen profession. I think he will approach it with vigor and enthusiasm, just as he did that little windup bunny.
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