Thursday, June 12, 2008


Grandfather Love

I want to share the following with you as Father’s Day approaches!

“With all the confessions of preachers in the news I’ve decided to do the same. Just because God created the attraction between male and female I can’t blame it on Him. I thought I was too old to fall in love again but I discovered I didn’t know my weakness.

I had always considered myself to be contentedly settled, assured and experienced. How, then, could this stranger come along and bewitch me so completely?

I never believed in love at first sight until, most unexpectedly and bewilderingly, it happened to me. From the moment I first saw her, it was as though her eyes entered my heart and pierced clear through to my soul. What else could it be but love?

She should have known that I was a happily married, contentedly middle-aged man. But she was beautiful and, oh, how she knew it … and she used that beauty to overwhelm me. I tried to ignore the feelings she stirred in me, but with each day that passed, I knew I was becoming a captive to her charm. I was under her spell completely!

She had so many enchanting moods: She was happy, sad, sweet, cute, pouty, serious, funny, and flirtatious. Each mood followed the other in dizzying succession. And each was effective … helplessly I reacted to each in exactly the manner she expected.

I tried to appear blasé about our relationship; however, that was clearly a façade, and my friends saw through it instantly. Even my wife became aware of the new object of my affections. Surprisingly, she was more tolerant about what was happening than I would have expected. She even seemed to share my excitement over this new woman in my life. This, I might add, immediately gave our marriage a whole new dimension.

Where will it all lead? It’s hard to say. I though the thrill of this new relationship would be soon gone. And yet, several years have passed since she first entered my life, and I am still helplessly smitten. Each time I see her she is more bewitching, and each time she finds a new way to claim my heart. It used to be just a shy glance or a gesture. Now she is bolder and offers me a touch with her little hand, a hug, an occasional kiss on the check. I would gladly giver her the world at such moments.

I guess it’s possible that our relationship is just a figment of my imagination, as she has never spoken to me of love. And yet, when I look at the pretty, dimpled face, when I gaze into her blue, shining eyes, I know in my hearth that she is thinking … ‘I love you Grandpa!’”

I owe the above to author Jack. D. Minzey. I don’t know him but I know he knows the heart of a grandfather!

Illustration: "The Favorite" by Georgios Iakovidis

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