Years ago, someone (Hallmark?!) came up with Grandparents’ Day. I had young children — who had grandparents — and I was horrified when I realized I had missed this occasion. Honestly, I don’t think I knew it was an occasion until I was informed after the fact.
But decades on, Grandparents’ Day in September (September 10th this year!) has become a special moment to celebrate the unique role grandparents play in families.
We now have six darling grands. I’ve found this new role truly is unique. There really isn’t anything comparable to being a grandparent. For many of us, we can love them unconditionally without the concerns born by parenting. Grandparenting is so much more “chill” than being a parent!
So as Grandparents’ Day 2023 approaches, I’ll promote my own “Hallmark” greetings.
As with all my children’s books, these were prompted by something from the grands. In this case, a very young John being surprised that “Noanie” is his grandmother. But why is she called “Noanie?!”
I got to thinking about grandmother — and then grandfather — names. I asked grandparents I encountered what their special name were, and how they came to be. I asked my followers on social media to send their personal accounts of their special grandparent names.
What emerged was sweet and sometimes poignant. One dear friend shared his grandmother’s name — Bion. “How unusual! Why was she called Bion?” Family history from decades and decades distant was lost.
The grandparent books took on a new significance. My hope is that these books will encourage families to tell the stories of how their grandparents’ names came about. These origin stories should be part of family lore.
Then there was Jamie’s moment. Early on in his kindergarten year, while I was working on the grandmother book, Jamie came home very sad. When asked why, he shared that his friend said that PopPop was a silly name for a grandfather. Jamie loves his PopPop. He didn’t think this was a silly name.
His friend’s family called their grandfather PePaw. That is as unusual for a Northeast child as PopPop is for a Southern child — but no less endearing.
My intent always was to fill these books with grandparent names from all over the country and all over the world. But now I realized how important it was for children to hear many special names for grandparents and to appreciate the beauty in them all.
As to the Hallmark moment — there have been a few readers have shared with me in the past year. But one that touched my heart was how our niece and her husband shared their wonderful news with her parents.
Avid readers, they mentioned on their weekly facetime call that they gotten some books “so you can do some research on what names you want to be called.” And they held up Aunt Joan’s grandparent books!
Needless to say, this was quite a marvelous Hallmark moment!
PS! Both books have an end page where families can enter “I call my grandmother/grandfather…” and put a picture of their Very Important Person!
