Sometimes it can be late

My son, Matthew, continues to amaze me with his capacity for empathy. He loves being with his maternal grandmother. A few months ago I told him about his paternal grandparents who are no longer with us, the moral of the story has stuck with him.

👰 — Hey, do you want to go for a walk for a while?
👦 — Grandma, shut up, you're upsetting me.
👰 — It was to do something together.
👦 — Later, Grandma, don't be a pain.
👰 — Sometimes it can be late, you know that?

If there's one thing I would have liked to learn when I was a child, it's that lost time cannot be recovered. That what I used to be too lazy to do, now I would share it without thinking how or when.

But knowing with whom, with my greatest accomplice of unconfessable secrets. The one who built my childhood, in silence and day by day. The one who watched me grow up. My best ally when my parents wouldn't give in to my whims. The one that calmed me down on nights when I cried, without judging the problem or its importance.

^{My father (right) and I in 1986.}

I think it is all those stories full of wisdom, which only grandparents have, that make me feel so protected by their presence. And the reality is that the clock of life doesn't stop for anyone. Now, I can see the years passing through her tired pupils.

She can also seem cold, but she always tells me that in her time, everything was more difficult. All those anecdotes she tells me through hundreds of black and white photos prove it.
I always admired her ability to calm me down, to take care of me, and to teach me everything that I would never really learn at school.

^{When it's time to say goodbye to a lifelong companion.}

Many times, when I see her quiet, staring out the window, I wonder what she is thinking, and I tell her that of course, of course, I want to spend more hours watching a programme on TV that doesn't really interest me or listening to stories she has already told me.

I feel that grandparents are like angels who came as a gift, even though they are no longer there. And they make us appreciate, by dint of age and years, that time is the best gift we can share and in the end you end up appreciating that luck is to be able to keep knocking on the door of that house hoping to be welcomed with money on the sly, little cakes on a plate and a fraternal hug full of blessings.

^{When the years weigh.}

They say that grandparents always love to brag about their grandchildren, but I don't think they realise that as the years go by, it's the other way around. I believe that children who have grandparents are much closer to happiness, because later on, they discover that there are absences that take up a lot of space…