COVID 19 – A GrandMary’s Perspective and Warning

I am heartbroken and unbelievably proud at the same time! When did our children become so wise? I mean, I know they are all adults building families of their own but today, more than any other day, I feel old. In my heart, I truly don’t believe that I am, but in my head (and according to my driver’s license and birth certificate) I know that I am now in the “senior” or “older adult” category. Seriously? Like when did that happen?

It happened gradually, and yet it happened overnight. One day you’re tucking your four young children into bed, and before you can hardly blink, you’re tucking your five grandchildren in – yep, five! We are so incredibly blessed to be able to be a part of their lives. We get to attend their baseball games, football games, soccer games, gymnastics classes, and art classes, although thankfully not all at the same time! We have sleepovers, we watch the stars together, we go to the beach together, and sometimes we even get to do it all at the same time! Yes, we are blessed beyond measure!

With the recent shut-downs of our lives as we know them, however—no baseball and soccer, no gymnastics, no school, no physical church, no toilet paper (I digress)—and increasing concern for us “older adults”, our lives have taken a turn we never anticipated. In a single day, we became “at risk”. Our children, out of genuine love and concern for us, cancelled the two sleepovers we had planned for this weekend, one tonight with our Clark boys, and one tomorrow night with our Clark girls. (The Popes in Tennessee have already had their plates full with a tornado last week, warnings of another last night, overall devastation in their community and surrounding area, and now THIS? Again, I digress.)

Knowing that our children love us enough to put our health and well-being above their own plans for the weekend fills me with undeniable pride. It also fills me with the realization that they, too, understand our mortality. Ugh! I TOTALLY feel like I’m still in my 40’s…okay 50’s? The reality of life and its imposed limitations have really gotten to me today. So to my children, I say, “You are simply the best, and I love you with all of my being, no matter how old it is!”; to my grandchildren, I say, “No one loves you like your GrandMary and GrandDaddy!”. To the Coronavirus, I say, “Stay out of my way, and let me resume the life I love with my family”!

2 Timothy 1:7 ~ For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.