To My Grandchildren: A Foolish Old Woman Apologizes

I will begin by telling you how I always hoped it would be. We would live close enough so that Sunday afternoons, you would come over and we would bake cookies, take long walks, go to the bookstore or library, and do arts and crafts projects like rock painting. The conversation would flow easily and there would be laughter and little secrets and wishes shared. Once or twice a month, your parents would drop you off for the evening while they have “date night”, and we would go to the movies or the ballet or to a theatrical production. Sometimes you would sleepover, and I would make fancy pancakes for breakfast or we would go out for tacos or brunch. I would attend all of your events at your school, piano concerts, dance recitals, golf tournaments, choir shows, holiday pageants, and any other thing that you were excited to do. We would vacation together and experience the larger world. I would tell you tales about your crazy family for the preservation of your ancestry and heritage, and I would make up stories out of the blue to build imagination and wonder. We would be the keepers of stories and pictures and scrapbook the important passages. I would give you driving lessons so you could shuttle me around as you grew older and we would go for ice cream or bubble tea runs for added practice. In short, I would be woven into the tapestry of your life in ways that would enrich both of us…