Grandparents 033018

Grandparents (033018)

My second son and youngest son will never experience the joy of having grandparents.  In their limited constellation of exposure to relatives, the role of grandparents is lacking.  They have tons of uncles, aunties, cousins and in-laws to go around but having a grandfather or a grandmother wouldn’t be one of them.

On the side of my wife, her parents died early, and on my side, my parents also died with a very limited exposure to my offspring’s.  They knew that they have grandparents, but the requisites of bonding are not one of them.

Commercially, there are Father’s Day, Mother’s Day and Grandparents day.  While I suspect the creation of such specific days and I suspect that they are just created to sustain a commercial underpinning, to get people to spend their limited incomes on days that are supposed to be inexpensive and should be celebrated all year round, a mall inspired celebration is just a ploy to get people in the mall and for them to spend their money.

While there is nothing wrong with this ploy, this scheme however, cheapens the original intend of the commercially initiated occasion.

Just like Christmas Day, Easter Sunday and Valentine’s Day – the commercial inclination ruins the very rationale of the intended celebration. 

My personal regret, is that my parents cannot be around their grandchildren since they already moved on.  The supposed transmission of culture is not complete, and I am a poor carrier of traditions.

Somehow, somewhere, I lost something from this equation.  And the biggest irony of all is that I just learned from the eldest daughter that she is now expecting a child and that me and my wife are soon to be transformed as grandparents ourselves.  This is just great.  This is just another failure in my many lists of regrets.

A young man like me, all forty-seven of summers, soon to become a grandfather?  We have failure and regrets all written at the start of a chapter.  A colossal tragedy all waiting to happen at the slightest provocation.

A simple denial would have been sufficient, but another role to play?  This is not included in my repertoire above average skills.  I am doomed to fail and comedy story that is waiting to evolved as a tragedy.  Considering that I am not liked as a father, I am certain to be hated as a grandfather.

My wife would surely fill whatever role that I would surely fare badly upon and that is my only consolation.  I do not want this role but life goes on, and this role is pressed upon my unwanted and ungiven consent.