Melts Me

On our way to Yellowstone we went through the city where I grew up visiting both sets of Grandparents. I love this city, although it is worn down, the city is trying desperately to make a come back. To me, however, it is still home to fond memories of my summers, Spring Breaks, and Thanksgiving holidays for the first twenty years of my life.

Of the six Grandparents that I had, my children only met one; my dad's mother who died recently at the age of 98. What a blessing that she lived so long to meet the following multiple generations of girls and boys that came about because of the marriage between herself and her first husband.

We had a private memorial for my Grandma back in June at my parent's house, but I wanted to see her cemetery plot and I knew this August was my chance. Buying six flowers in a town along the way, I visited all of my Grandparents.

Unfortunately, I never met my dad's dad and I really wish that I could have. My mom shares that he was a very sweet and caring person. He passed away within a few years of my parents marriage. My Grandma remarried, and while I technically did meet that man who we called Grandpa Max, he died when I was only two. She married again and my Grandpa Glen was a man who I considered to be mine. He met my husband, but he too passed away before we had children.  A gentleman in the truest sense of the word who would do everything and anything for my Grandma and her Grandchildren.

The middle names of my children are the first names of my mom's parents. I am sad that they were not able to meet them. I know my Grandmother and Grandad would thoroughly enjoy the one-liners and pure charm of my son ... and marvel at the wisdom and spunk of my daughter.

Without any prior discussion on that warm summer day when we stopped at all the cemetery plots, my children warmed my heart and made me feel like they knew exactly the importance of this day to me. While they were not meeting their Great Grandparents, they were bonding in a way that I will never forget.

Searching for the plots.

Cleaning them off.

Placing the flowers.

Caring and Loving.

Just being us.

I love my Grandparents enormously for the love they created when they joined as husband and wife to take the oath of marriage, to grow their family under God's will and love, to continue the example from generation to generation so that my children, without pre-thought or discussion, would one day show their love and respect back to those who started our family over 80 years ago. Melts Me.