It's not the sun rising in the east or the moon disappearing in the west. It's not the tall palm trees against the colorful Florida morning sky.
It's something completely different...
Coming from opposite directions and ending up at the same bus stop are a boy walking hand-in-hand with whom I assume is his grandfather, and a girl about the same age, walking hand-in-hand with whom I assume is her grandmother. The boy and girl look to be about 10- or 11-years old.
I've driven past them at different times each morning for the past five-months, witnessing this loving bond between grandparent and grandchild. Neither the boy nor the girl seems to mind that their grandparents stay with them until the bus comes.
It's beautiful, and every morning I pray those two relationships will never change.
It reminds me of the relationship shared by my son and his grandparents.
From the first day he could talk, he spoke to my parents on the phone nearly everyday.
And when he started school, I was lucky enough to be living only blocks away from my parents, so when I went back to work full-time, the school bus dropped him off at Grampa and Gramma's house every afternoon, where he stayed until I picked him up on my way home from work. It was ideal.
He loved Grampa and Gramma very much, and was never ever embarrassed that he went to their house after school, as opposed to many of his friends who went to empty homes. This continued until we bought our son his first car at the age of 16.
My parents never missed a soccer game, a play, a musical performance, a band half-time show, or anything else in which my son was involved. Never.
When my son entered college, he still called his grandparents at least twice a week, and when he worked overseas in Japan, he phoned Gramma weekly. (By then my father had passed away and Mother was living with us.) Even after he married the love of his life, he phoned Gramma everyday on his way home from work. Up until the day before she passed away, he spoke to her every single day.
I loved that relationship he shared with Gramma -- loved it.
I never had that.
My father's parents passed away before I was born, my mother's father passed away before I was born and my mother's mother passed away on my third birthday. My younger sister and I never experienced the special love and spoiling of grandparents.
It was a special bond between my son and my parents, especially my mother.
The same type of bond I see in the boy and girl and their grandparents each morning on my way to work.
It's a beautiful thing.
If I'm ever blessed to have grandchildren, I pray for that same beautiful relationship of unconditional love.
Miss you and love you, Mom and Daddy!
