The willingness to experience new things, for the sake of her grandchildren…
My mother, who’s close to eighty years of age, for the sake of my three children, had three “firsts” in her life.
My mother was born to a agricultural family, and she was born in the year of the ox, and, since she was growing up, my grandpa and grandma would told her, over, and over again, that she can’t have any beef, because oxen are used for tilling up the land, not for food, and so, my mother never ate beef. But, she’d learned, that her granddaughter loved it, and, the very first time she’d bought some beef at the marketplace, and made beef with pepper sauce, and, my eldest had nothing but commends to say about her grandmother’s cooking, without knowing, that that, was her grandma’s first try of bravery.
Then, let’s talk about my all-too-rebellious son, seeing how worried about him my mother is, my neighbor suggested that she recited verse for his sake, and so, she’d placed those reading glasses on the rim of her nose, spent two hours a day, praying for my son.
As for my youngest, that time, they’d gone to the waterparks to play, my youngest wanted to get wet, and begged my mother to put on her bathing suit to get into the water with her, my mother who’s been conservative and traditional, for the sake of her granddaughter, bought her first bathing suit ever, and gone into the pools, shyly.
My mother’s three firsts are all very rare experiences, and, it’s all on how much love she felt for her grandkids. And, the three kids can also see my mother’s heart for them, and would call her name a lot, and understood to give their grandmother red envelopes, and buy presents for grandma, or treat her to dine out.
I’m truly grateful for my mother, giving her “firsts” to my children, we will keep it in our hearts.
And so, this, is how an elderly woman shows her love for her grandchildren, by being willing to open up, to experience the things she didn’t have it in her to before.
Life, the Obstacle Course 