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Sunday, September 13, 2020

National Grandparents Day 2020

MY MATERNAL GRANDPARENTS ARE FEATURED IN MANY BLOG POSTS
I don't want the day to pass without mentioning that today, being the first Sunday after Labor Day, is a holiday known as National Grandparents Day. According to Holiday Insights the holiday "originated in 1978 when then President Jimmy Carter declared it to be the first Sunday after Labor Day."

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 (they can be seen in the snapshot, atop this entry as well as in the image below which I featured in a recent post here on Blogger.

MY MATERNAL GRANDPARENTS ARE FEATURED IN MANY BLOG POSTS

In any event, both of these photos were taken in bygone — way bygone — years and I hope the Welsh proverb, "perfect love sometimes does not come until after the first grandchild," proved true for my maternal grandparents.

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.

Many people now know of my grandparents through posts on this blog and because the narrator of my book series, Words In Our Beak(pictured below) is a female cardinal named Cam.

MY BOOK SERIES

The name Cam is in honor of my maternal grandparents, a fact I've mentioned  in my cyber-venues over the years, where I've explained the "C" in Cam's name is for my grandmother, Clara. The "a" in Cam's name is for my maternal grandfather, Albert. And the "m" in Cam's name is for their surname, Melahn.

As for my paternal grandparents (who are pictured in the next snapshot which was also taken in bygone — way bygone — years)...

MY PATERNAL GRANDPARENTS WHOM I ONLY SAW A HANDFUL OF TIMES

I only saw them on a handful of occasions (mostly as a toddler)...

MY PATERNAL GRANDPARENTS WHOM I ONLY SAW A HANDFUL OF TIMES

... as they lived out of state and the only opportunity I had to see them was on family vacations that we took when I was a little girl, but after my parents's divorce was finalized there was no opportunity (except for once when I was in my last year of elementary school) to see them again.

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 grandparents, 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. . . "

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