Dear Grandparent I never met,
Hi, I am your grandchild. Whether your time came to an end before or after you knew that I was going to exist, I still wish I knew you. When I was in preschool, grandparent visiting days were very empty without you. I am fortunate enough to have known and to still know some of my other grandparents, but never meeting you hurts.
My dad and other relatives express their admiration for you. They harp on about your intelligence. You were an engineer and veteran. You clearly were a selfless person who was always willing serve others. You provided for your family, and still continue to protect them. I always feel your presence around me. We have remnants of you in our house. Physical items are a great reminder, but I wish I had actual memories of you.
I wish that I could have once shown my appreciation for you! It would have been amazing to make you cards for your birthday, the holidays, or just because. I wish I could have bought you a sweater or gone shopping with you or have you attend my birthday parties, but I know that this is all farfetched. I am grateful for my parents, but a loving girl deserves to meet each one of her grandparents as well.
I love looking at old pictures of you and being told stories about you. However, I wish that I could have been told stories directly by you. No information is more accurate than when told from the primary source. You seemed like such a remarkable human being! I strive to be as successful, charming, beautiful, hardworking, and wonderful as you seemed to have been. Whether or not you died due to disease, illness, an accident, or unexpectedly, I wish you hadn’t. I feel jealousy toward my family members who did know you. What would have happened if I were born sooner? Would that have made a difference?
I have realized that timing is very important in life, or in death, in your case. However, I know that I have to come to terms that you are a person whom I will never have the pleasure of meeting. I am fortunate enough to have parents and other family members who constantly tell me, “you would’ve loved him or her.” I wish I had the opportunity to have actually loved you. I yearn to smell your homemade cooking or inhale whiffs of your signature fragrance.
I am always proud when family members tell me that they see certain aspects of you in me.
“You have her eyes!”
or
“The way your face forms when you’re concentrating is identical to him.”
I take pride in being able to carry on your legacy. I beam with joy in knowing that I am able to honor you! Although it would have been a dream come true to have actually known you, I still feel connected to you. I know that you are watching over me, my guardian angel. You have watched me grow and achieve. Suddenly, your positive attributes live on through me. You are with me in spirit, and that’s all I can ask for! I hope that you are resting in peace, my role model from up above!
Love,
Your Grandchild
