The Legacy Project website informs me that in 1970, the year I graduated from high school and began college, Marian was leading the charge to establish a special day honoring grandparents. In 1979 her efforts led then-President Jimmy Carter to officially proclaim the first Sunday after Labor Day to be National Grandparents Day.
The proclamation summarizes, in a nutshell, what it is we do as grandparents. We plug the generational gap (well, sometimes). We act as "a link to our national heritage and traditions." We offer "the wisdom of distilled pain and joy."
As society groups began looking for ways to honor the contributions seniors make to family and community, schools quickly followed suit. By the 1980s, when my own kids hit the elementary scene, there were already designated days for my parents and Pa-pa's parents to visit their classrooms, attend a little program, enjoy a free lunch. Though most schools are barely getting things underway as early as Labor Day, they do often host their Grandparents Day celebration sometime during autumn.
Two weeks ago today, Pa-pa and I got our own first-hand taste of Grandparents Day when we paid a one-hour visit to Beenie in kindergarten. The first half-hour took us to the gym, where, just past the cookies, the annual Book Fair was in full swing (sneaky, but effective, planning on the school's part).
With Pa-pa $12 poorer, we then followed Beenie to his classroom where we sat on either side of him as he showed us a number game, sang a group song, and presented us with a piece of art work (which is still stuck to my fridge with a magnet clip).
And so, forty-some years after Marian McQuade (who, by the way, was herself a grandma of forty-three--no kidding, the article said that) pitched her notion that grandparents should be honored in this way, here are results that I, personally and directly, attribute to her efforts.
Without you, Marian, Beenie would not be the proud owner of a book titled, "Learn To Draw Angry Birds." If this turns out to be the impetus that sparks a lucrative career as an artist, we know who deserves the credit.
And without you, Marian, I would not have this gem on my fridge. With a cover of orange construction paper, it boasts two little black-paint hand prints crossed into the shape of a heart. Alongside is a rainbow, drawn with crayons, with the colors in the right order (a little OCD? maybe--but still pretty impressive for a five-year-old).
On the inside of the masterpiece, Beenie traced the words "When I am a grandparent I will--" and then there is a blank for him to complete the sentence in his own way. If art school doesn't work out for him, perhaps the Olympics are a possibility. He wrote, "When I am a grandparent I will run."
Beenie likely knows that, once in a while, grandkids might behave in a way that makes grandparents want to do that. But not usually. Not on a day like this, my first Grandparents Day.
So there you have it, Marian--my undying gratitude. Thanks for all your hard work.
I really mean that.
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