Level Two. Grandparents.
Level Two – Grandparents.
By Michelle Lloyd.
Everyone seemed to have them or know of them, New One knew that, and he had heard often stated that they could be incredibly positive people to have in life. Although this had been told to him, New One had his fears about the life of a grandparent. What did it really mean to be a grandparent?
New One loved his Grandma. She was, as had been told of, an incredibly positive person in life. He loved her. She loved him. The arrangement was a lovable one, on both sides, but New One had to think about the difficulties of a grandparent.
Up to then New One felt he may have been slightly advantageous in his side of the Grandchild and Grandparent visit. He got to go and see her, practically whenever he liked, but when he left he had to leave her on her own. Grandma lived on her own and when New One thought about it he believed this must be so lonely for her. New One loved to have full on fun time with Lana, his dog, he nearly always had a Mum or a Dad with him and then at school there were Little Herbert and R V to hang about with, he had to admit that whenever he could he would be with someone. Poor Grandma, he felt, did not have that at her disposal and New One was not at all sure that this was right.
New One decided that this time, when he saw his grandma, he would apply his You Will Not Be Lonely Again campaign to her and so it began…when New One’s Grandma came for a visit New One practically leapt into action. He was with her when she had a chat with his Mum, with her when she went to have a look at his latest project, he knew he could not be with her when she had to pay a little visit to the ladies’ room and so he sent Lana with her for that particular part of her visit. New One thought it was all going well but the only problem was that Grandma did not seem to think so, she kept giving him little but significant unsure looks and when Lana was sent with her, the whole tripping over her tail issue did not seem to make anything less awkward.
New One persisted in his attempts not to leave his Grandma alone. Grandma persisted in her difficulty to understand what was going on and why she could not be left to talk with New One’s Mum despite it being a talk on a subject she knew New One found tiresome. New One felt tired by all the talk of trams, trains and times moved on but he did not have it in him to leave the Grandma alone.
It all came to a bit of a breaking point when grandma got up and became startled by both Lana and New One standing to attention and then seeming to join at the hip with her as she made her journey to greet her Son-in-law who had got home. It was the time for questions and Grandma was the one to do the questioning. What was going on and why had everyone suddenly seemed so keen on accompanying her EVERYWHERE?
New One confessed all. It took some probing from Mum and poignantly questioning looks from Dad but in the end the justification for his actions came out. Grandma had to cuddle him and while at first New One thought this a positive response from his positive grandparent, it soon turned out that this was the beginning of a talk. Grandma explained to New One that as one grew older they could become quite independent and actually love to decide who they spent their time with, she was someone who did like to be by herself sometimes and she told him that she could get in touch with people whenever she needed. She thanked New One for being so thoughtful about her and assured him that part of being a grandparent was being able to have visit time and time for herself whenever she liked. Having given New One an assurance that she would let him know if ever she was lonely, he in turn, gave her an assurance that the accompanied trips to the ladies with Lana would stop.
New One loved his grandma. Grandma loved New One. New One learnt that loved ones could love different things and that this did not mean that they should be any less loved by each other.