Grandparents

Sunday is Grandparents Day.  I'm glad a day was created to honor them.  They add so much to our lives!
There isn't a day that goes by that I don't remember my "gramma" in some way. (that's how I said it, so that's how I spelled it.)  I spent a lot of my childhood with my mom's mom, Elaine.  We had a lot of fun and laughs.  I think it was her love of God's amazing creation that gave me my love for the sea and the sunset.  We would chase sunsets.  She would drive like a mad woman to the 4th story of the Robinson's department store parking structure in Glendale or even the top level of the Burbank Airport parking structure just to see the sun sink below the horizon in all its orange glow and glory.  We spent lots of summer days at Redondo Beach.  As we got close we could smell the salty, sea air.  When we would crest over the hill and be able to get that first glimpse of the ocean she would say, "There it is."  with such glee like a kid in a candy shop!  Then there was my East Coast Gramma, Lyndell.  She was amazing in a completely different way.  She knew how to do every kind of handwork perfectly.  She could knit, crochet, tat, embroider, quilt, hand and machine sew.  She knew it all and did it with such skill!  They both knew how to love and nurture!   My memories of my grandfathers are less.  I didn't know them very well.  The one vivid memory I have of my dad's dad, Kenneth is of visiting him on his ship.  He was ship captain and he was in port.  I got to board that enormous freighter and have a tour.  WOW. I do remember that he had a deep voice with a thick New England accent.  My mom's dad, Kepler "Kep"  loved Arizona and the car races.  All four of them were loving and generous in their own ways. 
Eric was very close with his maternal grandparents.  Until his grandpa, Peter died at age 90, he used to speak with him on the phone every week.  He had a crazy sense of humor and very special spot in his heart for Eric.  As a boy, Eric was often too little to do the things that his brothers were doing so he spent lots of time in the kitchen with his "Big Grammy" (great, great grandmother), his "Little Grammy" (great grandmother), Grammy and mom making huge amounts of Varenyky at holiday time.  He is a far better cook than I am and I owe it all to those fabulous women who loved and served their families!  His favorite memory of his paternal grandma, Germain is that she always had spearmint gum in her bread box.  His grandfather, Romeo helped him build a life-size cannon for the deck of a ship.   We both have such good memories of time spent with these special people! 
Now we have children and our own special parents are the grandparents.  They impart wisdom, lend a listening ear, joke and laugh and play when they visit.  Since all their grandparents live in other parts of the United States - they often will speak of the fun memories they have with them like when Grammy Maria just showed up on our doorstep to surprise us with a visit (all the way from Connecticut!) or when they woke up their Grampa Roger and Gramma Jodi at 5 am to go fishing and with one blurry eye open looking back at these small faces, they said, "Ok, we're gettin' up, let's go fishing.", or when Grammy Barbara and Uncle Bill visit and always bring animal crackers.  It's tradition!
I hope that when Eric and I become grandparents that we will be just as fun and just as supportive and loving as all the grandparents in our lives have been.
We are much of who we are because of them!!