Honoring Grandparents

Tomorrow is Grandparents Day. Since becoming a grandparent myself, I've become more tuned in to this often-overlooked holiday, probably because of the artwork I receive from my grandkids in honor of the occasion.

My own grandparents are models of the previous generations that built our country. All of them were teenaged immigrants, fleeing their impoverished childhoods in Ireland for the promise of a better life in America. A century ago, immigrants needed their checklist in order before entering the USA. From their firsthand accounts, I know that my grandparents were sponsored into the country by relatives already established here, who met them at the dock and served as escorts and witnesses to their identity. They needed to prove a place of residency and a job awaiting them, as well as pass a health exam, before being allowed off Ellis Island or out of any other US port of entry.

Sad to say, that's not quite our current immigration system.

I never met my firefighter grandfather. He died young, in the line of duty at the scene of a fire during the Great Depression. My other grandparents are vivid in my memory, especially my two grandmothers. It seems the older I become, the more I remember them, their inner strength, and the wisdom of their ways.

I can only hope and pray that I may hold a similar sweet spot in the memories of my own grandchildren.