There is something about grandchildren that always makes grandparents happy. Whether they be newborn and adorable or grown and with lives of their own, they are truly special. And when a grandparent gets to reunite with one of them she hasn’t seen in nearly a decade, the joy is overwhelming.
I had all that and so much more in the past two weeks, when my oldest grandson, Jason, and his wife Melissa, welcomed Aria Grace, my Great Grandchild #13. Aria joined big brother and oldest grandchild, James, and sister and Cadence.
Then my fourth oldest grandson, Anthony, a highly successful manager in a highly successful business, told me he wanted to see his cousin, Brandon, and asked me to go with him, I thought life couldn’t get any better.
With my eager assent, Anthony, then took charge of my life for a week. He bought plane tickets for the pair of us, arranged the travel, picked me up and off we flew from Philadelphia Airport to Memphis, Tennessee, the closest airport to son Jimbo’s home in Mississippi. Looking forward to seeing Brandon as well as my son Jimbo and his incredibly talented and wonderful wife, Stacy, put happiness over the charts.
Brandon had lived in Highlands during his grammar school years, then moved out to Wisconsin with his mom and began a new life filled with intrigue and excitement, a lot of sadness and disappointment about being so far from his dad and the rest of the family. So after his dad and wife Stacy moved to Mississippi, far, but still closer to his New Jersey cousins, aunts and uncles, Brandon opted to drive southeast and start life anew closer to his father. We’re all thrilled by the transition and Anthony wanted to be among the first to welcome Brandon to a new life, a new job and a grand reunion with all his cousins on the east coast.
So again, a proud mom and grandma thinks life can’t get any better. But it does.
The reunion of all of us was joyous and magnificent, leaving us with the feeling we had only seen each other a few weeks or months before rather than the number of years it really was.
Celebrating our first evening together at a great Mexican restaurant , we were shocked when yet another grandson popped in at the table. My youngest grandson Angus, a Navy Ensign stationed at Pensacola, Fla for aviation training, didn’t want to miss the reunion, so he drove up from Florida to join in the fun.
We spent the next three days bringing each other up to date, enjoying the charm and creativity of Jim and Stacey’s homes. They have two, both historic structures a very historic town. They are in the process of restoring the second of them to its original beauty, thanks to their hard work ethic, research and Stacey’s incredible creativity.
We opted to stay in a B&B in town, both so I could write about it as well as to give us all a place to spread out and let Anthony practice his culinary skills. The outstanding dinner of the stay was Anthony’s preparation, with limited resources and a new kitchen, of a dinner which featured chicken cordon bleu, herbed rice and broccoli, a meal fit for a king as well as a very proud and happy grandma and two more generations of the family.
The three cousins spent the time reminding me of all the antics they pulled when they were kids in Monmouth County, letting me in on the mischief they had done and kept hidden from me, and sharing the excitements each has experienced in his teen years and 20s before getting together again. We shared opinions on politics and religion, nary a fight nor argument, simply a sharing of opinions and a bit of education for each of us.
And when it was time to get say our goodbyes amid hugs and kisses, laughter and tears, Anthony and I got back to Memphis, the plane and our trip back home, both thrilled and delighted at all we had seen and heard, shared, and did. The cousins all agreed that family get togethers are exciting, fun, educational, and should be held more often.
And now that Brandon is closer to home, we know it will happen so much more often.
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