About 12 hours ago I became a grandfather for the first time. I’m now “Granddaddy John” for Baby Max, and I’m delighted.
Patrick was a grandfather four times over. In his last years he even prepared to adopt the youngest if necessary in order to insure a healthy, stable future for her.
I am excited, ecstatic even, that I have my grandson Max in my life, but at the same time I wish I had Patrick with me, to pick his brain on grandfatherly things, to laugh about being able to give the young’ns sugar and caffeine, to wind them up and send them home to their parents.
However, I will not let Patrick’s absence darken this happy day. Instead I will rejoice in the cliche about the “great circle of life,” and relish the memories I have of Patrick and anticipate with joy the new memories I will build with Max and his parents as he grows to adulthood.
As I’ve mentioned on other channels in my Grandfather’s Manifesto to you, Max, I’m not gonna spoil you rotten. “Spoil” and “rotten” are both bad words, with negative connotations. Instead, I’m gonna treat you really, really well.
Welcome to this world, Max. Thanks for adding balance to this lopsided crazy world, for enriching the lives of your parents and the rest of your family, and for putting a big smile on my face, a smile too frequently absent for the last seventeen months.
I love you, champ.
— Yer Granddaddy
I’m the son of Patrick of Meadows.
I wish you and Max many great years together. I’m sure you’ll be a great ‘granddaddy’. You both are very fortunate in this regard.
Congratulations. Now I have that family tree problem again. who bore this guy and how does he have 5 granddaddy?
As with my whole family tree, Lee, it’s complicated.
Max has two bio-grandfathers, one step-grandfather through re-marriage of a bio-grandmother, one step-grandfather as an ex (me) to a bio-grandmother, and one step-grandfather as a partner to a bio-grandmother.
Max has five grandfathers. I’ve asked the kids if I can be “Granddaddy” to him because that’s what I called my own grandfathers when I was a child. As has been documented elsewhere, I was adopted by one of them.