My Grandfather’s Legacy: An Eternal Bond
My grandfather’s legacy cannot be measured in material things, old stationary watches or black and white photographs.
The true treasure he left me was the time we spent together. The slow walks through the autumn leaves on the way home from school, the taste of the chocolate he kept in his pockets or the summer hours we spent by the sea… the hours when he entertained me with thousands of stories. An endless number of epic stories that teetered on the edge between truth and fiction.
Grandparents provide us with those intense bonds that connect generations. They transmit their values to us and teach us through their emotions and experience. They are playmates, confidants and companions. The role of a grandparent has many facets.
It may be the job of grandparents to teach, but their mission is not exactly the same as our parents’. A grandfather, a grandmother, both have already lived through their parenting phase. Now it is their time to play a different role and even to relive their childhood.
We will never know if our grandparents choose to be grandparents. Grandchildren come into the world expecting to be loved, cared for and pushed into the world with confidence and self-assurance. Every child needs it to establish strong bonds with those around them. If parents are important, so are grandparents.
We carry some of their blood and in a way we are the extension of their legacy to our generation. But there are many other aspects that fuel this relationship that go beyond a common genetic code.
Grandparents can make time stand still
Have you ever noticed that most grandparents can do this? When you came home from school and your grandfather picked you up, you knew the afternoon would pass slowly and quietly. We will also never know if our grandparents asked to relive their childhood through us. But, in a sense, they are almost doomed to do so.
They joined in with our games, our puzzles. Today, they are even quite handy with technology. They share laughter and secrets with their grandchildren. They create moments of intense emotional charge, unlike the moments you share with your parents.
Grandparents almost never get you on your head. They are a bit freer and they are also good listeners. They have time for you. In fact, they will even stop time for their grandchildren.
The role of a grandfather and a grandmother
This fact is as interesting as it is true. According to many studies in gerontology and family psychology, the role of grandfathers is different from that of grandmothers.
Grandmothers focus on dedication, care and attention. They are the ones who are concerned about our nutrition and well-being. In a way, they are more grounded, more in reality so they can be helpful. Grandfathers, on the other hand, provide their grandchildren with wisdom from the past and a personal legacy conveyed through thousands of stories. Stories that children listen to with wide eyes and fast beating hearts.
Children love stories, they like to know where they come from and they like to see the world through the wise eyes of their grandparents. It is a unique wisdom passed down from generation to generation, never to be forgotten.
They are our allies in times of crisis
Grandparents are trees of life under which the whole family can take shelter, not only in times of harmony, but also during violent storms. Teenagers, for example, tend to find some peace in this bond with their grandparents, who can often act as mediators between them and their parents.
Grandparents are often criticized for giving in too much, not being able to say anything negative, and being slightly too biased when it comes to their grandchildren’s wishes over their own. Grandparents are therefore at a point in their lives where they prefer to ignore conflict and put the emotional value of life and the bond with their own relatives above all else.
My grandfather was not just a man of stories. He was a man who couldn’t stand the silence of an empty house or the noise of a room full of arguments and arguments. My grandfather was an ocean of calm, the serene breeze during family crises. No one ever knew how he did it. But thanks to him I had a safe and happy childhood.
A childhood full, very full in fact, with personal legacies more valuable than the treasures in the pirate stories I heard from him as a child.
