Grandmas & Grandpas [antikvár]

Grandparents f ill in the gap that mothers ana fathers leave out. Ali the entries in this book are by real grandchildren, writing about grandmas and grandpas. They were sent in by children írom eighty schools and we are deeply indebted to the teachers and children who contributed. The idea for the book had long been in our minds, but took shape when Helen ran a "What is a grandmother?" competition in a newspaper, and was surprised how many of the entries came from children. These young people were so warm, so full of goodwill, that it seemed obvious that they should write the book. We decided to collect more entries, and wrote to a number of schools. In all, we had close on three thousand entries, and almost every entry could have gone in. A few were badly written, or went on about grousy grandmas. But the overwhelming majority told a kind of love story; each one presented a personal little cameo, each one told of a grandparent who was precious to that child. We had the invidious task of selecting the well-written, the well-produced and the well-painted entries: sometimes just because they had a particular turn of phrase, sometimes because they were cute, sometimes because they were profoundly moving. We were only sorry that we couldn't squeeze more into the book, because the grandparents would have been so proud to see what the children thought of them; it would have melted their hearts. The things the children said in their letters confirmed our belief that there is a very special bond between grandchildren and grandparents: grandparents "fill in the gap that mothers and fathers leave out", as one of the children put it. We already knew from our work with older people that this was true. They describe in their letters the joy of a grandchild, of being able to touch and hold someone close again, perhaps years after a bereavement. People talk of a feeling of renewal in their lives, of a new meaning when a grandchild is born. And they discover that, if anything, the new grandchild is more precious even than their own firstborn. They now have time to enjoy the relationship,