Book Quote of the Month (about Grandmotherhood) - March 2014

It’s our mothers who teach us how to live in the world. And we think forward through our daughters, if we are mothers, and beyond them to their daughters. - Roxana Robinson in her essay for Barbara Graham’s Eye of my Heart

I enjoyed every essay in this book written by grandmothers about their view of themselves in the role. Each was a learning experience having not been thrust into that role yet in my own life. All of the essays had some positives --- but every single thing was not rosy. Relationships are complex.

The book reminds me of my relationship to my grandmothers and my relationship to my mother as she became a grandmother to my daughter. I remember the good times and have to think hard to remember ones that were not positive in the end. I am surprised to realize that my grandmothers were about 20 years younger than I am now when they became grandmothers and that my mother was a grandmother by the time she was my age (although only a few years younger). My generation waited until relatively later to have children.  I have known 5 generations of my family (2 great-grandmothers, 4 grandparents, 2 parents, 3 siblings, 1 child) already; because we are living longer, many people know 7 generations in their lifetime.

Another realization - the role of grandmother is something we are granted rather than choose - a role to savor if it happens. This book provides look into the many ways ‘savoring’ is done.