Grandpa, A new Role

On Valentine's Day 2022, I was blessed with my first grandchild, Alfred Timothy Limer.   It was special for me that this was a grandson, born to my son and his wife.  I am at a loss to describe how this wonderful miracle affects my outlook on the world.  Of course, I know the excitement will be just as intense when any one of my daughters has their first child, boy or girl.  But, when your son brings a grandson into the world there is a reassuring awareness of the gears of life engaging.  You realize that the universe continues on with its forward momentum and maybe, there is still hope for our future.

Three generations

Along with our youngest daughter, my wife and I went out to see the new addition to our family about a week after he came home. The overwhelming desire to meet, hold and cuddle this new person was more potent than the anxiety of having to brave NYC traffic and parking. 

When I first held Alfie, I was overwhelmed with many thoughts and emotions.  One of the first and strongest was the pure, unconditional love for this little person and his parents.  A simultaneous conflicting emotion was regret for not thinking about how my parents must have felt when they held Alfie's father for the first time. He was their first grandchild. I realized how self-centered I had been probably for all of the years my wife and I were raising our children.  And, again at the same time, I realized that my father probably felt the same as I do now and was accepting and forgiving knowing it is the way things work.

I hope to be as great of a grandparent to Alfi as my father has been to my son.