Monday, October 01, 2007

THE LAST POST

Thank you for reading my blog. If you have difficulty seeing your grandchildren, or have any views about my situation, I would welcome your messages by e-mail through this blog site. If you wish, just use a first name or a nickname and your identity will be protected, like mine – “Grandad Kit.”

TO ALL MY REGULAR READERS AND TO ANY FIRST-TIME VISITORS: THIS IS MY LAST ENTRY ON THIS BLOG WHICH WILL TERMINATE SHORTLY. DO POST ANY LAST COMMENTS YOU MAY HAVE. LOOK OUT FOR A BOOK BY 'GRANDAD KIT' IN 2008.

Dear “Tom"

THE LAST POST

You are now four years old. I am your other grandfather, the one you have just met, but only the once. At the moment, it looks highly unlikely that we will ever see you again, but whatever happens please believe that I love you dearly and always will. You are my flesh and blood, and always will be. We will meet again one day, I am sure. I am writing this daily "blog" to you to make up for the fact that I can't speak to you right now. I hope that one day you will be able to read allthe letters I have written to you over the past year.

As you may have guessed, this is the last "letter" I will write to you for the time being. It may be some time before I write to you again, but in real life this time. I have been "writing" to you now for a whole year, without you realising it, but I am sure that one day you will get to read this and you will realise just how much we love you and how much we wanted to be part of you growing up.

To be honest, it is a little selfish on our part, me and Nana Ann. We would get so much out of seeing you grow up and learn about the world, day by day, that we feel we have been deprived of something so lovely, so precious, and something that can never come back again, that your absence has been a big hole in our lives. But we also feel that you would learn so much from us and that our just being around would help you feel more happy and secure and learn about families in a positive way rather than in a negative way as things have been all your short life so far.

Although the day was a failure, it was such a blessing to be able to see you just one day, even for such a short time and even with so little physical contact. We could see that you are a happy, healthy boy, with a cheerful outloook on life and a curiousity about the world. This all bodes well for your future life. We know your Mam and Dad love you absolutely in every way and that they are giving everything they can to you as your parents. We know that they will love you and look after you so that you can eventually go out into the world and lead your own life with confidence and happiness.

It's all the more sad that your Mam and Dad cannot spare us even a tiny shred of what they give to you. That was the shocking part of our one meeting just a few short weeks ago, an experience Grandad and Nana Ann will never ever forget. The way we feel, we don't want a repeat of that experience, but we do very much want to see you again, only this is just not possible right now.

Now you are growing up and are getting more and more aware of what grown-ups do, we don't want you to witness anything that might upset you. So, both for our own sakes and for yours, we feel we cannot even try to make arrangements to see you again - unless and until your Mam and Dad give us even a tiny bit of recognition and understanding. We do try and see things from their viewpoint, but from our perspective it's difficult for us to understand why your Mam and Dad have taken the attitude they have and why they are so adamant about it.

If we have "done wrong" by them, they haven't told us what it is. All we know are the results, the effects of whatever it is that your Mam and Dad think - only they won't tell us and they won't - as far as we can see - change their attitude to us. Rather than have you witness disagreements between grown-ups and perhaps unpleasant things said, we would rather you grew up in a happy home - as you have now - without these negative things hitting your young life. Later, much later perhaps, when you have grown up enough to think for yourself (withour being disloyal to you Mam and Dad, something we would never contemeplate you doing) you will be able to have a relationship with us and get something positive from it. I hope that when that time comes, this "blog" will help you understand us and our feelings.

All the very best to you "Tom." We will always think of you and wish you all the very best. We are trying to keep fit and healthy, so we both hope to be around for many years yet - so there's always time!

All our love

Grandad Kit and Nana Ann

Comments

one last e-mail grandad kit. i hope that you do not mind but i have printed out your "last post" to put into Matthews book. if you do mind please let me know and i shall of course respect your wishes but it just seemed to epitomise everything that my husband and i feel about our situation.

it is very hard to put into words how much your blog has helped me but i truly believe that people who have been or are in the same situation, whatever that may be, are the ones who are the most help and offer the most understanding.

thank you,

Sue

Of course you may use this and any other part of my blog. That's why I have put my thoughts on the ner - to share with others and hopefully help them as I hope they've helped you.
All the best
Grandad Kit





sue

Posted by: sue | Thursday, October 04, 2007

I ran across your blog randomly and my heart is so sad for you! I wish I had something to say that could fix this, but I don't really have much experience with this. You clearly care very much about your grandchildren. You mentioned working things out with your daughter. I do have a friend in a similar situation- she's the one who harbors resentment towards her parents. In her case, she really resents that it seems they only want to get to know her now because of the grandchildren. It's hurtful to her that they always ask about the kids but don't seem to put as much energy into asking about her. She's said that she wishes they would just concentrate on fixing things with her instead of always going straight to the "When can we see the kids?" question. I don't know your situation at all, but I wonder if this perspective might help you?
Dear Shelley
You have hit on something very relevant. It is all too easy for grandparents, anxious to experience their grandchildren growing up, to forget that their children still need attention. It's rather like the appearance of a new baby - the older children can feel left out.
But in this case our children - who can cause us so much pain by blocking access to our grandchildren - are adults like us. Just as they wan t us to understand and appreciate their feelings, so do we want them to understand and appreciate ours.
It is so obvious that children who grow up with knowledge of and regular contact with their wider family will have a better chance of enjoying life and growing in the widest sense. Cutting off their own children from their kids' grandparents, sometimes for trivial reasons and sometimes for no reason atall, is damaging those kids. When the grandchildren get older and start asking about their grandparents, that could cause a rift with the parents.
But, yes, I do agree that we grandparents must be mindful of the feelings of our own children. All we ask is that they be mindful of ours.
Thank you for your perceptive comment
Grandad Kit

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