Grandparents can make a big difference. In fact, there is a theory that when humans started living long enough for tribes to have grandparents, it made for a HUGE leap in the evolution of society.
My father's father had kids late in life, and died 2 years before I was born, at the age of 82. My mother's father had kids early in life, and lived to the age of 86. It was interesting to me that the age difference between me and my maternal grandfather was 50 years, and the age difference between my father and his father was 50 years. My father died several years before my maternal grandfather, so my maternal grandfather, Bob, became a bit of a father figure to my brothers and to me, Also, one of my cousins is very much estranged from his father, who is still alive, but grew up in the same city as his grandfather Bob. So, his grandfather Bob was often more of a father figure than his own father.
Let's just say my uncle, by marriage, is rather narrow-minded and bigoted, and wouldn't even travel to Provincetown for his own son's wedding (which was one of the few places he could legally marry in those days). Also, my younger brother is married to an African American woman, and has refused to have her meet an uncle whose favorite word starts with the letter N.
I was really worried that my kids would never know a grandfather, since my father died about a decade before DS was born, and, as I mentioned in an earlier post, my father-in-law was not expected to live out the year 1996. Fortunately the chemo worked very well for my father-in-law, and he even got to see DD #3 pitch last summer.
My father's father had kids late in life, and died 2 years before I was born, at the age of 82. My mother's father had kids early in life, and lived to the age of 86. It was interesting to me that the age difference between me and my maternal grandfather was 50 years, and the age difference between my father and his father was 50 years. My father died several years before my maternal grandfather, so my maternal grandfather, Bob, became a bit of a father figure to my brothers and to me, Also, one of my cousins is very much estranged from his father, who is still alive, but grew up in the same city as his grandfather Bob. So, his grandfather Bob was often more of a father figure than his own father.
Let's just say my uncle, by marriage, is rather narrow-minded and bigoted, and wouldn't even travel to Provincetown for his own son's wedding (which was one of the few places he could legally marry in those days). Also, my younger brother is married to an African American woman, and has refused to have her meet an uncle whose favorite word starts with the letter N.
I was really worried that my kids would never know a grandfather, since my father died about a decade before DS was born, and, as I mentioned in an earlier post, my father-in-law was not expected to live out the year 1996. Fortunately the chemo worked very well for my father-in-law, and he even got to see DD #3 pitch last summer.
