When Grandma Is Gone

Parenting author and family expert Randy Rolfe, that's me, is working on a new book about what happens when a mother loses her mother. Having lost my mother a year or so ago, I discovered that many women around me were going through the same time of life and I wanted to honor our mothers and ourselves by writing about it. Could anything be more profound that the creative force of motherhood passed on from one generation to the next? I am having a wonderful time, though deeply moving and sometimes too emotionally heavy to bear – have to take some time out - talking to these wonderful women. One thing which stands out is the deep love and respect which permeates their stories, along with all the mixed feelings and impressions one might imagine when you have shared half a life-time with a beloved parent. For me, it was my sociologist mother who got me interested in observing and teaching about family in the first place, when she invited me to do a fifth grade project for my American history class not on some battle or some heroine but on the history of the American family! What a project for a ten year old! My life’s goal has always been to facilitate world peace, having grown up during the Cold War, but I soon discovered that world peace begins in the home. Anyhow, here is just one tidbit from the book right now – spend as much time as you can comfortably spend with your parents and your children together. The memories made now will last and last.

Check out Randy’s other books at www.randyrolfe.com.