first person
Confessions of a doting grandma By Shari Greene AS A LITTLE GIRL growing up in a military
moving and talked from the minute he
hot tubbing (his favorite), reading, cooking
family, I didn’t get to see my grandparents
woke up until the minute he went to sleep
(he’s really good at cooking!), or building
very often, and yet, the memories that I
— often in mid-sentence.
forts with friends in the woods. Jackson
have are so vivid: Grandpa pretend-fishing
Now I have five grandchildren — all
even gets me to watch shows that I never
with my brother and me in the back of his
boys. But Jackson was my first, and I
thought I would ever watch … and I like
old pickup. Picking wild strawberries and
have to admit, he totally turned me into
them! As a grandparent, I get to spend time
rhubarb with my grandma to make a pie
a doting grandmother. Me — a former
with one of my favorite people.
(she would always let me make my very
Marine, a no-nonsense mother of four,
own in a pot-pie tin). Grandpa making
and a middle school English teacher, had
considered a top-ten blockbuster event,
homemade hot chocolate and toast for
become a doting grandmother! I wanted to
but that doesn’t really matter to me at all.
me, because that was my favorite. And
make memories with Jackson, just like my
I think being a grandparent should be
Grandma secretly allowing me to throw
grandparents had with me. He wasn’t even
celebrated every day, because we have a
away my peas when my mother wasn’t
a year old, and I was already planning a
special place in the life of a child. We make
looking.
week at Disneyland when he turned 5, and
a difference. I’m a little older, retired, and
buying books he wouldn’t be able to read
not as energetic as I once was, but I can’t
for years (thank you, Scholastic Books).
wait until my other grandchildren are old
With all of my wonderful memories, you might think I would have dreamt of being a grandparent myself — to be
As a teacher, I would look forward to
celebrated on Grandparents Day. But I
fall break or Christmas break to hibernate
didn’t. And then, suddenly, there was
and recharge, but now I look forward to
Jackson — a little bundle of energy (still
those breaks because I know Jackson will
to this day) who never slept, never stopped
spend time with us — swimming, bowling,
66 September 2021 RaisingARIZONAKids.com
I know Grandparents Day isn’t
enough to come spend time with and make memories with Grandma and Grandpa. Shari Greene, a grandmother of five, is a former Marine and retired educator who lives in Show Low with her husband and two very spoiled dogs.
