“ Grandparents are odd things, cursed to die at almost the exact moment they become anything beyond the kind face that gives you cookies or kisses boo-boos. They have the funny tendency to pass away just as the grandchildren are finally old enough to meet them on their own terms and understand that there was a person that existed before they became simply grandma and grandpa, that indeed, beneath those subjectively all-important titles, there was a very different and very important name. Later, the child realizes that these uncomplicated caregivers actually had jobs and things, maybe even made mistakes occasionally (and maybe even made a mistake that you call Dad!). But by the time you’re old enough to appreciate them as something beyond what they are to you, they die. It’s a dirty trick that life plays. I might hope that our increasing lifespans would create more overlap between grandparents and mature, perceptive grandchildren actually old enough to really learn something, but it seems like we’re compensating for our longer lives by having children ever later, so the essential chronological curse of the grandparent seems unlikely to change much.
The Musty Man - Words Between The Lines Of Age
