National Grandparents Day 2016

MY MATERNAL GRANDPARENTS ARE FEATURED IN MANY BLOG POSTS

The picture atop this blog entry is of my maternal grandparents, taken long before I was even a glimmer in their daughter's eye, in fact, it was taken long before she was a glimmer in their eye! But one might surmise from looking at this picture, someone was sure to more than a glimmer in an eye, and be born to this couple, as my mother ultimately was!

I'm including this image in this entry in honor of the holiday known as Grandparents Day. According to Holiday Insights, "National Grandparent's Day originated in 1978. Then President Jimmy Carter declared it to be the first Sunday after Labor Day." 

As you know, dear reader, in this year of 2016, the first Sunday after Labor Day fell on September the Eleventh, which also happened to be the fifteenth anniversary of the 9-11 terrorists attacks on our country. Therefore, I did not post anything re Grandparents Day on its actual date, as I wanted to be quiet about other matters on the solemn anniversary. However, I still want to give a shout out to my dearly departed grandparents and to grandparents everywhere.

I've read that "the impetus for a National Grandparents Day originated with , a housewife in Fayette County, West Virginia. Her primary motivation was to champion the cause of lonely elderly in nursing homes. She also hoped to persuade grandchildren to tap the wisdom and heritage their grandparents could provide."

I am the first grandchild of my maternal grandparents, and I hope the Welsh proverb, "perfect love sometimes does not come until after the first grandchild," proved true for them! I feel very fortunate to have grown up near my maternal grandparents' home, and I've always been appreciative of the wisdom, as well as the heritage they provided — although my maternal grandmother might've begged to differ a she never liked the fact that I moved to New York City.

In any event, it was my maternal grandparents and their siblings (my great uncles and great aunts) who gave me an appreciation for the elderly. I am thankful to discover that at least a day is set aside to honor granddparents, especially in my country of America, where often elderly people aren't exactly revered.

A few lines from Herb Gardener's play (I'm Not Rappaport) sum up an unfortunate truth regarding our society (in the United States), "You collect old furniture, old cars, old pictures, everything old but old people. Bad souvenirs, they talk too much, they look like the future and you don't want to know . . . put them with their own kind, a building, a place, a town, put them someplace . . . the problem's not that life is short but that it's long; so you better have a policy."

"The old people, they're the survivors, they know something, they have not stayed late to ruin your party. The very old, they are miracles like the just born; close to the end is precious like close to the beginning. . . "