Who is S-Grandpa? How did he come to be? Where has he been hiding all this time?
Some things need to rest for a long while before they see the light of day. Whether the reason is emotional or something else doesn’t even matter. What matters is the moment you are ready to bring feelings that were put on paper long ago out into the open.
And it matters that they are out in the open. That they are heard and kept. That they are known. Because once they are felt, they are real. So why hide them?
And so today, after six whole years of “lying in the dark of a notebook”, a text by my dad, Sofia’s grandpa, finally sees the light of day. He wrote it honestly and from the heart when Sofia came into the world.
What do the thoughts and feelings of a Super Grandpa look like?
Here is the text, now in full and in its original form:
A grandpa, what is that?
The eternal dilemma: is “grandpa” the last title you get in life, do you really enter old age, is the end really somewhere out there on the horizon…
A truly big philosophical question, but I’d rather not go there. Let the philosophers talk about it.
Twenty months ago (six years ago by now) I became a grandfather, at the age of 55.
I often joke that I am right at the halfway point.
Why halfway?
In the first half I tried to make something of myself as a person, a good one, I hope.
To make something of myself as a professional in my field, a good one, I hope.
To be a good husband and stay one forever.
And, most importantly, to be a good father.
That much I am sure of, because every day my two wonderful daughters prove it to me.
They prove it with the way they behave, with the way they approach life and their responsibilities…
It isn’t easy to sculpt two beauties, but when you have a wonderful wife who gave birth to them and, with my help, raised them to be good people above all, all the hard work is forgotten.
Now the two of us are at peace, because we made it.
Now we are at peace, because we enjoy their happiness and success.
Now we are at peace, because along with our first wonderful son-in-law we got our first grandchild.
We got Sofia.
And that is where the second half of life begins.
Enter S-Grandpa
S-Grandpa’s story begins like this:
Our daughter and her husband, FAR AWAY!!!
Living, studying, finding their way, fighting their battles.
One day the old man tells them an old Serbian saying:
“Cabbage into the barrel, and a baby into the house!
Your ways are all well and good, but…”
Our son-in-law replies:
“Old man, the cabbage is already in the barrel (even if it isn’t the season for it).”
And so begins the greatest happiness and the wait for the baby.
Well, the baby is born.
A stampede begins: cleaning, singing, celebrating and getting ready to leave. We have to see Sofia!
The 1,320 km drive felt like a dream.
On the living room sofa we see an ORANGE, five days old.
HEY, OUR GRANDDAUGHTER!
The rest is history…
Why do I call her ORANGE?
Our own children had a small problem with jaundice too, but this…
These Germans have a completely different approach.
And we have to listen, because she is our granddaughter!
Holding your own child at five days old and holding your grandchild at five days old is not the same.
Only those lucky enough to have it can feel this; my apologies to everyone else.
They don’t know what they have missed in life.
S-Grandpa
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