Grandparents

A few days ago, I wrote about Keifer Sutherland and the unveiling of Tommy Douglas' statue in Weyburn. My blog that day was about how the ability to become famous and successful seems to run in a family through-out generations. However, the past few days I have been thinking about how Keifer must have felt to see the statue of his grandfather. To him, this man was not the Premier of the province, was not the father of public health care, but a grandfather he loved, a man who was buried over twenty years ago. Sutherland was at the ceremony not as a movie star, but as a grand child. Knowing the bond between a child and a grandparent, I wonder what emotions he felt as he unveiled the statue and saw his grandfather. The two men in the pictures are my grandfathers. The one standing by the chair is my maternal grandfather, a man I knew well and loved very much. The man reading a book is my paternal grandfather who died before I was born. Even though I never met him and never knew him, I still feel some connection to him. As a young girl, I spent a lot of time with my maternal grandparents. I remember days spent with my grandpa, collecting eggs, weeding his garden, raiding his raspberries and going for walks with him. I remember the bond between me, the grandchild and my grandfather. He has also been gone for over twenty years. What would it feel like to unveil a statue of him after all these years? I think it would be a very emotional event and I think that the thoughts and feeling of you the child, would come to the surface. I realize now that the this statue must have caused Sutherland to go back through the years and to relive those special, wonderful moments with his grandfather. Basking in the love of grandparents and hanging on to those memories forever . . . it's a good thing!