From grand to great

I took my mini men up to see Mum and Dad on the weekend and tied it in with a visit to see my paternal grandparents.

The boys have visited their great-grandparents once a year but this time seemed different. They were more aware of these ‘great’ people. The boys are rough and ready with Dawn and me and scallywags with their Ma, Poppy and Mumma.

But with Great Nanna and Great Pa, they were almost reverent. Gentle and sweet, they puckered their lips up and hugged the grey-haired lady in the walking frame who held their little backs as they kissed her powdered cheek.

They looked up at the 84-year-old man who looked terribly similar to their father and Poppy and shook his hand and gave him a high five on his hand which is missing half a finger from a horse accident years ago.

I tried to untangle the relations for them to understand.

“So you know Ma and Poppy are my Mum and Dad?” Nods of heads.

“Well, Great Nanna and Pa are Poppy’s Mum and Dad.” Half-cocked heads stared back at me.

“So they are my grandparents, er, well, they are like Ma and Poppy to you.” Nods of heads again.

We turned Kylie back up and seat-danced in the back of the car.

When we arrived, I could see Nanna wheeling her way up the pathway with Pa hobbling behind her dutifully to the club where we were having lunch together. My aunties and uncle were with them with their own children and it was like a mini family reunion.

The old town and seeing Nanna looking so beautiful and healthy after a cancer scare last year reminded me of growing up and she and I doing the groceries once a week, coming the hour into the little town. She would buy me Malteasers for helping her and we would laugh and talk the whole way home.

As much as I love my mother, I idolise my Nanna. She can turn from sweet to fire and brimstone in an instant, she is sociable, she knows everyone else’s business and she raised seven children who all make you feel when you visit that you have finally come back home.

No wonder my boys felt naturally inclined to be gentle with such great people.

By JOHN MEYER