A Letter To My Grandkids At A Crazy Time

Howdy Guys!

So all five of you (aren't you impressed that Grandpa can still count that high!) are home on what should be a school day. I remember all those years ago when we didn't have school for a while for some reason (usually a Minnesota winter blizzard). That first day or two was great. NO SCHOOL! But if it went longer, like it sometimes did, things weren't as fun anymore. As much as I thought I didn't like school, turns out I kinda did. As I look back now through the decades of my life, I know why. Because it was normal.

And I know...this isn't normal.

In all the years I've plodded around the planet, I remember a few times when things weren't 'normal. Heck, I was just 8-years-old (and as you can imagine, cute as a bugs butt) when something really bad happened. It was on a November day and what I remember most is, it made our teacher cry. And teacher's don't cry, at least I didn't think so. But I found out different and for a while the world was different. My parents and the other grownup's were sad, and maybe a little bit worried, too. So...I was too. But we got through it.

Not all that long before you guys arrived and made my world the best place ever, for a while it seemed like the worst place ever. It was September 11, 2001, a date from history for you all, but seems like just last month or so for a lot of us, uh..folks that walk around with an older persons bones. And for a while, it was pretty scary. We were confused, things were chaotic. But we got through it.

And now with our current craziness. Something called Coronavirus. It's turned your world a bit upside down. They've closed your schools, you can't play with your friends like you did just a month or so ago. You can't sit together at lunch or bug your teacher with two of your buddies (OK, I guess that's a memory of mine). You're not sad, like maybe you've been sad in the past, but you're...

...feeling different. Probably bored. Probably anxious. You want this thing to be over!

We all do. And it will be. But I know, it's not fun for now.

But latch onto this: It WILL be fun again soon. Things WILL get back to normal. You WILL play with your friends again, walk the hallways at school with them, laugh with them, fight with them, like them and not like them...just like your 'old days'.

Let me tell you this (please Grandpa, don't preach or you'll lose me): This too shall pass. That's all, no profound words of wisdom, just..this too shall pass. You and I, we will get through it.

But man-oh-man, you'll remember it! Like I remember a cold, gray day in November of '63 and 9/11. In fact, you should take a couple minutes each day (I assume you have the time!) and write a few sentences about what it's like, how you feel, what you do. It may seem a little dumb right now, but believe me, when you're about 35 or 40 with kids of your own (We can only hope they're as devastatingly handsome as their Great-Grandpa), you'll pick it up and read it to them and...remember. They'll have questions and you'll have answers.

And you'll remember that, yep...it passed.

I love you Lane, Hailey, Bennet, MacKenna and Ayden. And go ahead, bug your parents a little. That would be some normalcy!

Love,

Grandpa