Oh how I love this, on so many levels.
Niko! I remember when you first mentioned him saying this:

Set clear ethical boundaries
And who or what did he have in mind; what #lifelesson might have triggered this insight?
Your grandchildren (none on the way yet, right?) will not get to know their Uncle Niko.
And my sister's grandchildren won't get to know her. Just one, now age 4, had time with her. Struck down by cancer at age 62. All the light and laughter and ebullience of Kelly, scattered as so many molecules and atoms - the flash of light on rippling water in the sun? That's it? Sorry, I hate that popular poem going around....

But I love your poem, Stacey! "Give thanks to the ramblings of an old woman" - old in years, maybe, and in wisdom, but young at heart and so very much ALIVE and here with us, and for that I am so grateful. Every day, I list the good things still in this world of war and loss. Stacey is still here. MarianneWest and MyJob are still here. We lost our beloved Bruno, but we still have much to celebrate.
Thanks for this Stacey!
Set boundaries - that is a message I'm seeing as my middle child, the mother of our grandchildren, has declared me "insanely toxic" (for reasons that even my husband says sound fabricated and fictional) and we have been "removed" from her life. I'll miss the kids. The daughter, I just pity.... "the daughter" .... flesh of my flesh, breastfed on demand for two years, nurtured with love, but Middle Child ....