Covered With Grandchildren
Stephen Mosher
My Mam and Pap were good parents. Indeed, they were very good parents. Of course, there was a learning curve, there were growing pains - after all, when a couple becomes parents, they aren’t handed a manual. Of course, these days there are a hundred million trillion million books, blogs, and so-called specialists to tell everyone how to be good parents, but my parents had their first child in Nineteen Sixty. They did the best they could and, for this son’s money, they did great.
But.
When it came time to be Grandparents, they were the best.
From the day that my brother brought his firstborn into the Mosher Family Homestead, Mommy and Daddy were doting grandparents. They cradled, they cuddled, they swaddled, they loved, they hugged, they smushed, they adored that little girl as much as any little girl has ever been loved. They gave her everything they had, everything they could, right up until her college years. And, like that little girl, they did the same for each of their grandchildren - my brother’s three from his first marriage and one from his life after divorce, and my sister’s two daughters. Watching Me Mother and Father with each of these little ‘uns was a joy and a treat, but watching the Herculean efforts that they put forth when all the kiddie winkies were together was awe-inspiring. The children were, pretty much, all born within a few years of each other, so, at the fever-pitch of their growing, what we are looking at is two aging people who were constantly covered with grandchildren, which is what I called this photo that I made of them all (on black and white film) during a rare visit when all of the Moshers were together (my sister had a new last name by this time, one she shares with her daughters, but we are all the children of John and Juana Mosher).
It wasn’t often that the cousins were all together, but my sister did her best to make sure that there was a Mosher family reunion every few years so the kids had a relationship with each other, so, as the children grew, there was an opportunity to recreate the Covered With Grandchildren photo (on color film), although babies were no longer sitting on laps - they were just too big. The laughter in the photo tells every tale about this family that needs to be told.
When my parents became great-grandparents, all bets were off. My brother’s middle child had two adorable babies and Mom and Dad doted on them. Seeing Mama as “GiGi” (or GG for Great Grandmother) and Daddy as Great Grandfather was incredible, especially with regards to the firstborn grandson, who was around when we did this final recreation of the Covered With Grandchildren photo, digitally. On this day, when the entire family was reunited, we made this final photo in the series. We were never again all together, like this - it was the last time. My sister’s youngest ended up in California with a family of her own (Mom and Dad traveled out West to meet their newest great-grandchild), my brother’s only boy went off with the marines, and the middle child now lives in Colorado. Mommy and Daddy haven’t seen the great-grandchildren since the beginning of the quarantine, but when their grandson returned from his tour of duty, one of the first things he did was go to the Memory Care Facility to visit his Grandmother, who saw his face, grabbed onto him and, with happy tears, kept repeating, “Oh, isn’t he beautiful! He’s so beautiful! Look at how beautiful he is!” Although my brother’s oldest has never been to visit Mama in her imposed residence, my devoted sister and her oldest visit Mommy every Sunday for a stretch of hours, during which they play games and talk and laugh - during my last trip home I crashed one of their Sunday afternoon playdates, and getting to see Mama so happy was a sight that will nourish my broken heart for many moons to come. I am deeply grateful to my sister and niece for this weekly tradition, and most respectful of their love and dedication to this woman who spent her life caring for us all.
It is a gift to be a grandparent and my parents didn’t intend to waste it.
Waste it, they did not.
