I remember a long, long time ago, after birthing my first-born, my mother told me that she, without knowing that i was in labor, at that same time, she also experienced "sympathy pains," as she called it. i have since discovered that it is SO true that no matter how young or old our children are, their pain becomes our pain; rather--their pain becomes my pain. however, the other side of that coin is that their JOY becomes my JOY!
today, eleven short years ago, i paced the floor continuously while my own daughter was in labor with my first grandson. WHAT A WONDER AND JOY he is; HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY "supershot75"!!!!! what incredible JOY you have brought to SO MANY! (excuse me for shouting, with all those capital letters and exclamations, but yes; i am THAT excited!!!)
i have two photographs framed on my mantel. one is a very young me, holding my daughter, just home from the hospital. the other is of a sorta-kinda-young me holding my brand new grandson. Amazingly, these two photos are virtually identical, in position of baby and me, and in both, a glow on my face that can only be explained as pure JOY!
a couple months before my mother went to her heavenly home, i remember during a visit, counting up for her remembrance, all the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren for whom she was the matriarch. the numbers respectively were 4, 7 and 4. and it was THEN, that the shock hit me: i had just one less grandchild that my elderly momma had! i was only ONE behind her.....but, yet--WAIT! WHAT? i am not (ewww! yick!) elderly!!! how in the WORLD? WHAT th'!
then i remembered! it has always been, and remains, MY plan, to live til i'm 103, and then if i still like it, i'll stick around a little longer. so, in THAT case, i am just about middle age! SO, at that rate, i may have to add a third photograph to the mantel some day. when my now-11 year old grandson someday in the far future places his little one in my arms, someone had better be on assignment to have the camera ready.
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- babluebird
- Took me all of about 3 seconds to adjust to retirement--which I have RE-named to RE-LIFE-MENT, 'cause I am not "tired" anymore. I am re-doing life!
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3 comments:
well, happy middle age to you. and happy birthday to your grandson.
funny you should write about this, b/c this morning i was staring at a photo of my grandmother and her 11 great-grandchildren. 11! she had 4 children herself... then those had 7, then amongst the 7 were 11. and i thought. my g-ma is still young (at least in my eyes she always will be, she's 82, will 83 this summer and my mom she is a young g-ma herself... 55, we tease her that she can finally get her senior citizen's discount at the IHOP. hahahaha. this in turn made me think that when my children have their kids (no sooner than 30-- cuz' i'll drill into their heads to wait! lol), then i'll be pretty darn young, too. and this made me happy.
i love the fact that my kids are getting to know their great-grandmother and my mother. and of course my husband's grandparents and his parents. but i'm more in love with the fact that every day, i know my grandmother is happy and content with her fullfilled and very adored way of life. she's never without hugs and she's never without smiles from my kids.
thank you, V! thanks too for sharing this beautiful account. continue always to cherish family love throughout each of the generations. it is VITAL.
Thanks for writing about this, Ma. It sure is a wonderful day! I can NOT believe it was eleven years ago today when the midwife, at my daily check-up, suggested I take a walk later in the afternoon. I knew immediately that would be the day. We stopped for some lunch (Chinese food), went home and took a nap, then went for our walk at Northwestern Park in Philadelphia. A very, very short way into the walk, I had my first contraction. Stopped me in my tracks! ;) But we kept walking anyway, until it was very clear this would, indeed, be the day. Five and a half hours later, you called the Birth Center at 10:19 PM--you just couldn't wait any longer to hear. Perfect timing. Only two minutes earlier, Monk (SuperShot) had made his appearance. Eleven years ago? No way!
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