Dear Sixteen Year Old Me

I am sure that everyone has seen the "Dear Sixteen Year Old Me" ads. If I had to write one today this is what mine would say.

Dear Sixteen Year Old Me,

Right now you think you are appreciating the gift of living with your grandmother, how special she is, and how much you are learning from her. Yet still, you really will not completely appreciate it until later.

Your grandmother is one of the most humble, loving, intelligent, and giving women you will ever know in your life. She lived through and remembers the great depression and world wars. She has survived the best and worst of times. She can sew. She can cook. She is a talented artist. Many things that your peers only learn about in books, she has lived through and is more than eager to share her story.

Stop rushing around so much with trivial teenage things that seem to be the height of importance to you and linger at the dinner table. Make watching Jeopardy with her more than an occasional event. Work harder at learning to knit from her. She has so much to teach you.

In the next few years Grandma is going to have several illnesses that are near brushes with death. She will live and you will have many more memories to build. Unfortunately, the numerous near misses with death will cause you to stop paying attention to making the most of every visit with her, because you will have a false sense of security that there will be yet another time to see her. You are going to wish that you had spent more time in the present making the most out of those visits. In fact, you will be so preoccupied with the behavior of your children the last time you see her, that you will get very little time with her. Seize the moment.

Twenty years from now you will have to say goodbye to Grandma. You will have an infant and will not be able to go in person. You will have to say goodbye in writing because she will be unable to listen to you on the phone. You will be so happy for her to meet Jesus, but you will be so sad you won't have a proper goodbye.

Hug your grandmother, because you will wish you could now.


I love you Grandma!