Old and Young

My Grandma and Grandma visited today. We have lived in this house for over two years and this was their first visit. They don't drive much. My mom had driven them out to get a turkey at Whole Foods. Grandma and my mom went shopping there while the girls and I stayed with Grandpa.

I was worried that Grandpa wouldn't want to be left in a strange place with me. He is often confused and can get anxious. But he was fine and so he and I watched the girls play outside and chatted and then when we came inside, Sunshine showed him all her favorite books and he looked at them with her.

As I sat at the kitchen table, I watched my grandpa and his youngest great-granddaughter together. He talks slowly and quietly and so does she. He is interested in the little things that she is and oh-so-patient and she was patient with him too. I felt as though I needed to look and look at the quiet relationship before me, the old balding head and the young blonde one. I knew that in this time something good and beautiful was present. I felt, even as I interrupted them with my camera, like I was intruding on moments that they were magically unaware were golden.
I am privileged to have been present, to watch and to smile at the murmured conversation between the child and the one who is entering his second childhood. How oblivious are we, the loud and rushed adults, to the simple peacefulness of these un-valued and maligned members of our world, the very young and the very old. They know what life is all about.

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My Grandpa was born into eternal life on September 16, 2013, 10 months after this post and this visit, the first and last that he would make to my house.