Day 9: Those We Miss

Day 9: Those we miss

   First there are those I missed meeting like all my great-grandparents and my paternal grandmother.  My paternal grandfather died when I was 2 and so in a large sense I missed knowing him also.  I also missed knowing all of Charlie's grandparents except his maternal grandmother who I had the honor and pleasure of meeting and coming to know a bit.
 
   And then there are those I miss; my mom's parents both died when I was twenty, despite living an ocean away they both made a tremendous effort to love and build a good relationship with their American granddaughters visiting almost every year as long as their health allowed.  We would also go to Belgium every few years to visit them.  Another grandmother of sorts (my aunt-by-marriage's mother) who had always been very kind to me also passed away during my twenties.   My father's younger sister died when I was seven; my introduction to death on a personal level.

   Most significantly I miss my father and my father-in-law, the missing is different now nine years later but missing still and I imagine missing always.  Much of the missing now involves missing not being able to share my kids with them; and not being able to have my kids know their grandfathers in that intimate in the flesh manner I would wish them to.  Blessedly both my dad and Charlie's dad have siblings who are still living who I pray will continue to in addition to be wonderful great-uncles in their own right a wonderful link to stories from our dads childhood and adolescence.

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