Keeping in Touch
Blessed are the families who have grandparents and extended family nearby. Last Saturday our next door neighbors, Joe and Susan Reinhart, had a combined party for their daughter Cassie and two of her cousins whose birthdays are near the same time.
Early on the morning of the party, Joe and Zack were out grooming the lawn and setting out picnic tables and benches. Susan and the other mothers had prepared three Birthday Cakes and other favorite dishes.
Wise and Reinhart grandparents were there and cousins galore. Uncles and aunts compared the crop prospects and child raising practices that work. The children enjoyed whoshing down the slides and being pushed on the swings. Others explored the small creek out of sight of the grown-ups but accompanied by willing older brothers and sisters. Two-year-old Ashley enjoyed time on grandpa’s lap. As dark approached, the children, even the three and four year olds, played hide and seek.
Candles glowed on the cakes as we sang Happy Birthday. Oohs and aahs greeted the unwrapping of the latest Barbie doll and a metal tractor. Ohio State shirts were admired. Around thirty adults and children were there, and we appreciated being invited as adopted grandparents.
Our grandparenting to our own grandchildren has to be done long distance as the nearest grandchildren live in Toledo and in Ann Arbor. In the past, we have gathered up those grandchildren and taken them to the Ringling Brothers Circus in Toledo. They have come to the Ritz Theatre to see Chinese acrobats, and we have taken our grandson, Jamie, fishing when we owned a boat. We have usually celebrated birthdays at the children’s homes. Almost always we celebrated Christmas here. Our best times together have been family trips to Ocracoke Island in North Carolina. This June we fly to Sacramento, California to attend the graduation from high school of the next to the youngest grandson, Josh.
Long-distance grandparents have to find creative ways to pass on their ‘’wisdom’’, and we feel keenly the importance of keeping in touch. E-mail helps and so do assignments that require children to interview their grandparents about the ‘’good old days’’.
Forty-seven years ago we were newcomers in Tiffin and the years have shown us the benefits of the close ties of this community. Not only do many people have close family ties, but also there are ties that bind neighbors together. Neighborly know-how is greatly appreciated when machines get balky. We can’t imagine our children growing up without the gang of children who lived in the neighborhood then. Besides the usual children’s games, they enjoyed a tree house in the backyard, and pick-up ball games in the vacant lot across the street.
Clubs like Isaac Walton, Farm Women’s Clubs, The League of Women Voters, Kiwanis, Rotary, Lions, and the newly formed Pax Christi bring people together who share fellowship and common interest. Worship and common purpose unite many churchgoing families in Tiffin.
Some people form bonds with fellow workers. National Machinery comes to mind. Heidelberg College and Tiffin University are examples that have provided support to their faculty and staff. This has been especially important since most faculty members come from other places.
Although many people enjoy these benefits, we often forget to include those who have only recently come to Tiffin. And as senior citizens move out of their homes and into condominiums or assisted living, do neighbors welcome the young families that move in those homes?
Many families are struggling with loss of jobs, and the adjustment that brings. In spite of help from job placement agencies, families may be forced to endure the uncertainties of long periods of unemployment. Perhaps we need an expanded notion of family to include those who are making these painful decisions and adjustments.
Some of us volunteer to help in organized groups like Patchworks House, Habitat for Humanity, Hospice and Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) to name just a few. Others quietly give help in their own informal ways. The blessings these folks bestow on our community are beyond counting.
As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, ’’All life is interrelated. All... are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.’’
We in Tiffin are fortunate that so many people help make Tiffin the caring community that it is.
– Percy & Mary