Unconditional love only comes from a few people. If you’re religious, God. Also, the two people who raised you. The people who you were raised with. And then grandparents.
Grandparents are like unconditional love without the element of discipline and rule. You can’t really make your grandparents mad at you.
I love my grandparents. And while I’ve only ever had one set during my lifetime, it has never really mattered, because they are equivalent to three or four each.
Grandparents are the best cheerleaders. They are the ones in the stands filled with love and pride and endless support. It’s so easy to make them proud, and they never stop telling you either. For me, there is no easier way to shake off a sporting disappointment than when your Grandma pulls you in for one of those hugs that only Grandmas can give.
Grandparents are too many presents for your birthday. They are dessert before dinner and run wild in the backyard without your shoes on because there’s no rules at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.
Grandparents are teachers. They teach strong and steady, because they grew up in a different time, when you had to be these things. They teach that success is important, but family is even more important. They make you believe that you can do anything, and because of that, you feel like you can do everything.
Grandparents are tradition. They are lineage. They are generations. They are Christmas and Thanksgiving and Easter dinners. They are Christmas cookies and Superbowl Sunday and the makeshift family baseball games in the backyard, boys vs. girls. They are family stories. They are old VCR videos and pictures in black and white. They are the glue that holds family a little closer to your heart.
Grandparents give you everything, and I’ve always found that they gave me one of the greatest gifts of all: my parents. And I feel like everyday they give me a little perspective, too.
They have held a family together for over seventy years, and someday it will be my turn to do the same.
It’s because of them that family comes before anything else.
And it’s because of them that I already know how.
