A Grand Journey



 “I don’t want to go!” I wailed. I thought if I could just live with Grandma on her farm I wouldn’t have to back to school.


Grandma knelt down so she was eye level with me. “You’ll have some good friends to play with.” She reassured me with a hug.


“Kids laugh at me.” I cried in anguish because I was teased relentlessly for my speech impediment.


Then Grandma gave me advice that my six-year-old self never forgot: “Good friends will never tease you, and those who tease you haven’t learned how to be good friends.” 


Grandma called every week to find out how I was doing. She was right—good friends make life better.


Many years passed.




Now in my mid-forties, our roles were reversed. 


“Where are you?” Grandma yelled from the living room. I’d gone to the bedroom to pack her things while she was napping. But she hadn’t slept long.


I came back into the room, and sat across from her, explaining yet again what I was doing. “I’m just boxing up some things that you’ll need in your new place.”


“Where am I going?” Grandma’s voice had an edge to it. Her anxiousness was rising. 


“You get to move to a beautiful home—much quieter than here—no more apartment living.” I smiled reassuringly.


Grandma’s dementia required this move, and the “beautiful” home was something she’d share with four other elderly ladies and full-time caregivers. Grandma still remembered things from long ago, so we sat and reminisced about her farm days. She was soon smiling again.


The next day, I moved Grandma to her new room. I’d brought her favorite chair and hung familiar pictures. She was quiet and looked around the room. “So, this is where I’m staying?”


Life had taken us from Grandma reassuring a frightened six-year-old, to me now reassuring her that she’d be okay in this new, unfamiliar place. I wished I could stay and be with her.


Just then there was a knock on her door. A small woman with kind eyes asked if she could visit. The old gal had grown up on a farm. I sat and listened as they shared similar experiences from a lifetime ago. Grandma was smiling. She’d made a new friend.





They were still talking when I left to catch my flight home. Yes, Grandma had been right, good friends make life better. 


Somehow I knew this would be my last time seeing Grandma. I’d had a grand journey with her—from my earliest days until now. She’d taught me so much, loved me in my youth, watched me get married, held my babies, and offered timeless wisdom throughout. 


What an incredible blessing our grandparents can be.

Grandparents Day will be on September 8 this year.


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