Grandparents Day is on Sunday, September 9. I don’t know about you, but whenever I reminisce about my grandparents, I think of their stories and the stories my parents shared about them. Even though I didn’t see much of my grandparents when I was growing up, my parents did a pretty good job of filling in the blanks by telling stories about when they were kids, passing along the cultural traditions they were raised with and the stories their parents passed down to them. Raised in a storytelling tradition, I’ve always felt a strong sense of identity and a connection to my multicultural roots.
My maternal grandmother was an especially gifted storyteller. She knew how much I loved her stories and whenever I got the opportunity to see her, she would indulge me with my favorite tales and tell new ones. She further influenced my already inherent sense of curiosity. Her flair for drama made the stories captivating and the characters that much more colorful! In many ways her stories
inspired my love of writing and reading.
Even if you won’t be seeing grandparents this Grandparents Day, share their stories with your children or encourage your kids to pick up the phone or write a letter and ask their grandparent for a story. Questions they could ask: Did you have a favorite pet when you were a kid? Where did you live when you were a child? What was your house like? What did you want to be when you grew up? Little questions can spark inspiring and humorous stories.
You may learn something surprising or develop a new perspective about someone you thought you already knew. Sometimes all you need to do is pay attention. This past weekend, family and friends converged on Omaha for my brother-in-law’s wedding. While watching my kids swim in the hotel swimming pool, I was visiting with my husband’s grandmother. She mentioned how she used to love to ride her horse as a child. She and her friend would ride their horses up to the Loup River in Nebraska and go for a swim during the hot summer months. Her short story added a new dimension to her character for me as I pictured this stalwart family matriarch as a carefree farm girl.
My kids love to hear stories about when my husband and I were their ages or when they were babies. As they grow older, I look forward to sharing stories about their great-grandparents who lived through exceptionally troubling times and persevered anyway. I hope that they will lock those stories in their hearts and remember, even through life’s most difficult moments, the brave souls who came before them. May they reflect their forebears resilience and strength of character with an honorable set of values that keeps them from going too far astray as life presents them with its mind-boggling array of choices.
What stories do you remember when you think of your grandparents?
To learn how you can make storytelling part of your family’s life, see my article “The Magic of Storytelling” in this month’s Fredericksburg Parent & Family (VA).
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
