Just a random very philosophical deep thought for a leisurely Friday evening Once a week, my missus takes my two lads to see her grandparents, who are of course my kids' great grandparents. I collect them on my way home from work. In the living room of wife's grandparents on those days, there are 4 generations of the same family, with the youngest being my new son, aged less than 3 months, and the oldest being wife's grandad at a Gazzillion years old (I'm not actually sure, but I think he's somewhere in his 90s). The poor old man is really struggling now. The pair of them are, but at least granny is still able to hold a conversation and move about around the house. Realistically, the old man hasn't got long left. When I see my two sons in the same room, it blows my mind a bit. In the same room, in the same family, there are people who've seen nothing, who are right at the beginning of their journey, and people who have seen everything, who are nearing the end of theirs. I find that quite profound and incomprehensible. Just thought I'd share that completely pointless random thought.
It's not a completely pointless random thought Clue....i find it fascinating ........to think one day your boys could well have that very same thought....
I like what you're saying clue, I find it sad to see the old ones gradually reverting to their childhood and gradually losing their faculties.
Why oh why do we harbour this angst over getting old? It has always been ever thus and as long as your grand parents are safe and warm, the rest is inevitable Clue, in the words of the late George Harrison, Jenny
Not a situation I would ever get to experience, clue: how totally marvellous though. PS: I hope you have taken lots of pictures of those four generations together?
When our youngest grand daughter was born , I got a lovely photo in the maternity ward of 4 generations. Evie up to the Great Grandmother . And now our oldest granddaughter is living with her boyfriend at college so we could have 5 generations ( hopefully not !!! ).
Another one. I meant to post this last night but forgot. When I was a kid of about 9 or 10, there was an old lady that lived alone in the house opposite my wife's childhood home (I didn't know my wife or her family then, just a coincidence). This old lady had the most amazing garden which was an overgrown orchard. My mate and I went out scrumping one evening, and we went to pinch apples from the old lady's garden (I know, it was wrong, but stick with me on this). The old lady caught is red handed. Actually in one of her trees. We thought we were in so much trouble but to our surprise, she was lovely. she spoke to us calmly and asked us not to run away, so we didn't. She explained calmly and sweetly that she doesn't get much company these days and while she doesn't expect anything, she would appreciate it if people didn't sneak about. She gestured to her heavily laden apples trees and said pointed out that there's far more apples than she can possibly use, so we are welcome to help ourselves, and even offered to get us more bags. All she asked in return was that instead of sneaking about under the cover of darkness, that people simply knock on her door and ask first. I never saw that old lady again. Years passed, I grew up, wife grew up, we met etc etc. Then last night, something like 30 years on from that day in the old lady's garden, wife and I got chatting about the old lady who lived over the road from her. That old dear has long passed, and the new owner of the house took a chainsaw to all the trees and built a huge fence round the whole garden. A thought occurred to me. Having met the old lady once, 30 years ago, I remember her, and I remember how nice she was, and I hold respect for her. Neither wife nor I can remember if we've ever even see the new bloke, and I wonder if he is the type of person that people will remember 30 years after a single encounter.
Quite possibly: just not one that *you* may have any particular memory of in 30yrs time Maybe the people who remember him will do so for a number of different reasons? Isn't it interesting who remains in our memories over time, even if it may only have been a very brief encounter? Which reminds me: I've met some really wonderful, inspiring, kindly people in my life who touched my world briefly, but permanently. I'm very lucky.
A lovely tale Clue - thanks for telling it to us. I think that such encounters - be they good like your one, or bad / scary ( we all have a few of those in our memory bank) do instinctively help to form our character without us realising it. She sound's a goodly lady and I'm sure you have a tinge of regret that you didn't visit her again? Jenny
