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Grandparents' Day
Dear Families,
I have no Grandparents left.
I lost my first, my paternal grandmother, to heart disease before I was born. My last, my paternal grandfather, passed in the spring of 2021 at the age of 94, after a long and difficult, but full life.
I knew my maternal grandparents better though. They lived in Beaver Dam, about a forty-five minute drive for us, an easy trip most Sundays. My childhood was full of Nanny’s delicious roast beef and gravy meals with banana cream pie for dessert, and enjoying the cable television they enjoyed but my own miserly parents were loathe to provide (and probably wise not to). These were such happy memories, but sadly, ones that largely receded into the background during middle adolescence. I was never old enough to dip deeper until that chance was gone. If I could go back, I would love to just sit with them, enjoy a cold drink, and just pepper them with questions about their lives. My maternal grandparents were children during World War One. They came of age during the opulence of the 1920s, and then survived the crash of the 1930s. My paternal Grandfather was a young parent himself, living in Budapest, Hungary, when Soviet tanks rolled into the city. He and his family escaped this on foot. These are things that I know about them, but I don’t really get.
This upcoming Friday is Grandparents’ Day, an event that I understand is kind of a big deal around here, as it should be. At SMV, we are proud of our work, of our staff, and of the community that we have built. We look forward to welcoming others into it. At the same time, we are proud to help facilitate this familial relationship, this connection beyond generations, to give our students and their grandparents, the chance to talk, to laugh, and to share.
These are the things that last, the things that matter, the things that your child, perhaps in some distant future when they’re in their late 30’s, in an office somewhere typing away on a screen, they’ll think back on and appreciate. They knew their Grandparents, and their Grandparents knew them. Lives enriching lives.
God bless,
Mr. Siggy Spelter
Principal
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