61 Días de Los Reyes Reto — Día Treinta y Ocho
61 Days of The Kings Challenge — Day 38 — December 13, 2018
A Writing Challenge
The Potters and The Clay
A True Story of Children and Grandchildren
My 15-month-married daughter had a wedding last week — a big, splashy shindig — the fairytale wedding she always wanted.
Unfortunately, she made decisions regarding the wedding and Christmas that hurt my heart deeply and disrespected me. Expressing my dismay, anger, and deep resentment did not change her decisions.
The wedding was not the joyous event for me that it should have been. I contemplated not attending but couldn’t do that to my grandchildren. I swallowed my anger and disappointment and played the role I had to play. This is what grandparents, particularly grandmothers, do — we do whatever it takes to keep the little ones near, always aware that one wrong move may banish us from their lives forever.
The picture above is of my grandchildren in their wedding attire — the photo transformed to protect their identities and privacy. My grandson walked his mother down the aisle. My granddaughter was the senior flower girl, mentoring a three-year-old junior flower girl who wanted to wear jeans and clogs — I sympathized with her.
Both of my grandchildren did their jobs well. Both looked fabulous. I could not be prouder of them. They were the joy in the day.
I struggled with writing anything about this until I read this piece from Marley K.:
Her honesty spurred mine.
There is only so much we can do. I got my daughter late — adopted as a teenager. My influence is not as deep and broad as I and many others wish. But, I wonder if more years would have made a difference. She is not a horrible person but she is not considerate of me or my feelings, as she proved several times recently. I see examples of her personality in her other blood relatives. In fact, she is the best of the lot. DNA is powerful stuff.
My hope lies in my grandchildren. Their DNA on both sides is sketchy at best, but somehow they beat the odds of heredity and are two of the most loving, generous, empathetic, and kind human beings I know.
My hope is they remain like that.
We do what we can.
