My maternal grandmother died when I was six from lung cancer. Although I did spend quite a lot of time with her during those six years, I unfortunately don’t remember much about that time. My maternal grandfather passed away a few years ago, and during the time leading up to that, I realized how important it is to cherish the time you do have with your grandparents.

Many times, when my mom asked if I wanted to go visit my grandpa, who lived just over an hour away, I would say no. Sometimes my cousins wouldn’t be going, and I thought it was a bit boring to go there without them. Well, after a while, I started to go more often because I realized he was getting older, and there was no guarantee that he’d be around in the next ten years or so.

Since I lost a lot of time with my grandma, I knew I had to spend more time with my grandpa while he was still with us. We needed to create lasting memories that we could remember when he did pass. I’m glad I realized this before it was too late. We never know when our grandparents are going to pass away, so spending as much time with them as we can is important even if it just means eating lunch with them and having a conversation.

I believe because I visited my grandpa more often in his last few years, his passing was a bit easier to deal with than my grandma’s. Of course, it has been tough and sad, but I was able to get to know him more than my grandmother. Although my grandma passed away years ago, I still constantly wonder how my life would be if she was still alive, but I was able to experience that with my grandpa while he was still here.

I recently saw a teenage girl at the store laughing with her grandmother, and it always brings me back to thinking about my grandmother and how it would be if she was still alive. What would we do together? Where would we go? Would she be by my side through the difficult times in my life? What about the happiest moments?

With this being said, I’ve learned the significance of spending time with my grandparents, and all grandchildren should be glad to see theirs as much as they can. Life is unpredictable, and we don’t want to regret losing the time we could have spent with them.