TEN months of near-solitude, courtesy of the covid pandemic and its quarantine offspring, are more than enough to make anyone miss out on a lot of things. And also missing people. Come to think of it, if one were to use as an indicator the things and people whom we miss, that might prove to be an accurate guide stick in knowing what type of person we are, right?
So, who do grandparents miss the most, in this time of the Covid quarantine? Their grandchildren, of course, with the younger ones as their more favorite, unless of course and if still possible, there are great grandchildren down the line.
Conferences with family on Zoom, on other video apps or phone calls and other convos can only do so much, because in the end, the actual presence of love ones, now made difficult by the social distancing, is more meaningful. In this quarantine-induced new reality, that goes a long long way. As such, they might have been taken for granted before as just ordinary schedules, but today, our face-to-face encounters with family, rarer as they come, especially with the little ones, mean a special lot. Just ask any grannie.
Precisely that. During my call to my dad of 92 years this morning, I was again reminded of this approaching weekend. Sundays would always have been a typical grandchildren’s affair at his house in the old days. Years ago, he would always send someone to bike down the highway corner grocery store for ice cream and other treats so that when the clan came and was finally complete, the little ones could have their anticipated dessert after our big family lunch.
I was planning to talk to him about a possible gathering before Christmastime, but thought better of it, with the stricter covid regulations set in place just recently. I was also sure that he would have been excited to talk about the coming of a new great grandchild. Or is it great-great?
From our end, my mate’s relatives in GenSan have two babies coming, and that assures us of a bigger welcome party when we are finally able to travel there in the future. For this unofficial grannie (my sons are still single), eighteen grands and two greats are not so bad. When the coast is finally clear, it’s really interesting to find out how each have grown. Something to look forward to when this is all over.
