Happy Grandparents Day!

If I could offer one piece of advice today on Grandparents Day, tell your grandparents you love them.  Hug them.  Call them.  Spend time with them even if its going to their house for lunch.  Trust me they'll appreciate it and you'll be happy you did because when they are gone it leaves an awful hole in your heart.  Nothing can replace the love of a grandparent.  So, if you are lucky enough to still have your grandparents, treasure them.

I was blessed to have three amazing grandparents and I'd like to think that the fourth, my paternal grandfather, would have also held a special place in my heart if he would have lived to meet his grandchildren.  And as the first granddaughter on both sides, I also held a special place in their hearts.

I had such wonderful relationships with my grandparents.

My grandpa taught me how to fish.  He taught me how to play tennis.  He paid for me to learn to sail.  Together we made a dollhouse and he refinished the most beautiful dollhouse for my sisters and I.  I thought I would dance with him at my wedding.

My Grandma Grace loved her grandchildren unconditionally.  She called us her CHARMS (our initials spelled it).  She called me Serenity.  I loved discussing books with her and she would have been so proud that I had become a librarian.  Sadly, she didn't live to see me graduate from college.

My Grandma Kay could have been my best friend if we had grown up in the same era.  She wrote me every week when I didn't live here.  We loved talking about our favorite shows, Gilmore Girls and Sex and the City.  We went for Chinese all the time.  Her unexpected death felt like I lost all three at the same time.

Like I said, if you still have your grandparents - tell them you love them as much as you can.  I didn't do it enough.  I didn't hug them enough.  And now I miss them still to this day more than anything in the world.

I wish my grandpa and Grandma Grace would have seen me receive my Master's.  I wish all three could have met my boyfriend.  There is so much I want to tell them and never will.  So, please treasure your grandparents, they are a true gift from God.

"And He will raise you up on eagle's wings,
Bear you on the breath of dawn,
Make you to shine like the sun,
And hold you in the palm of His Hand."