To a new granddaughter

by Darryl Wilkinson
Dear Claire,
You don’t know me (yet). When you were born, I was the old guy who sat in the back of the room but who still very much enjoyed the family’s excitement as each took turns holding you for the very first time. That was at the hospital a month past. I still haven’t held you. It seems so very long ago.
Then we had an errand that took us near your home in Cameron. That was about the time when your aunts and uncles forbade your cousins from overnight stays and playing and even mingling together. That’s a tough decision for eight grandkids to abide by in order to protect each other and you, the No. 9 grandkid. So, your grandmother and I didn’t think it right for us to visit you. Not then, not now. I still haven’t held you. I had my opportunities. But you looked so small and fragile, and I just thought to myself there’d be plenty of time for that later. Things change.
We expect current circumstances to be temporary, perhaps a matter of weeks. But who knows? By the time you enter high school, this COVID-19 affair will be in a history book you will study. Coronavirus as history sure sounds appealing. But right now, with disease threat still on the grow, all I really want to do is hold you.
Infant babies always seem too fragile for me to handle. Since you’ve entered into this world, so much more in life seems fragile.
Someday you’ll enter the work force and pay attention to things like the stock market. Today the stock market is the thermometer which measures fear. We’re fighting fevers. Our leaders promise to throw money at our anxieties in hopes that a normal, healthy economy will return or at least will be on the mend. But debt and other threats make every step seem risky.
The economy was going along so good just a few weeks ago. Life is change. We take too much for granted …like thinking there’s plenty of tomorrows for me to hold you. As you grow old, try avoiding regrets.
You came along just at the right time. Your folks hold a stockpile of disposable diapers from gift showers and such, shared before the coronavirus threat. It was weird, how the store run on toilet paper marked the first public reaction to COVID-19 here. Maybe your generation will advance past the “herd mentality” which marks the initial reaction to the pandemic. If so, please don’t be too critical of us.
This is the first widespread health threat since the full advent of social media. Many of us were blessed to previously ignore such threats as E-coli 0157 (first outbreak in the 1980s) and the Avian influenza (bird virus in the late 1990s). We’re groomed to ignore.
Social media is so confusing. During this pandemic it’s the main way people interact since personal social distancing is encouraged. Much can be learned about things by going online – and some do it constantly, all the time. But there’s also much confusion and distrust rooted in this digital age. We argue over truth or even if truth exists. It seems easy to find all sorts of “credible sources” that absolutely contradict most anything stated. But it’s not all bad.
It’s wonderful how photos pop up on my cell phone unannounced – you yawning, you with your big sisters, you in your dad’s arms or on your mom’s shoulder. So, yes, I have yet to hold you but I already know much about you. All your dark hair reminds me of earlier times, when little ones like you were joining us in making our household.
You give me hope.
I’m sorry that this coronavirus event is something that will mark your birthday.
Once there was something called Y2K. People were anxious about computer malfunction and society grinding to a halt just because the calendar changed from 1999 to 2000. It was such a hoax (but anxieties before that event were certainly real).
Most Americans know where they were when the 9-11 terrorist attack occurred. In the immediate aftermath, we united in ways never felt since the times following the victories of World War II.
But this threat is different. We’re to fight by washing our hands and staying at home when we’re sick – normal things we’re supposed to be doing anyway. Instead of pulling together, we’re to keep separated from each other whenever possible. Common sense never seems very exciting or uniting.
Who knows what disasters and pandemics you will witness, Claire, during your lifetime? But don’t despair. You will also experience so much that is so very good — like a chocolate chip cookie fresh from the oven, or getting the giggles with your best friend, or the romance in a first kiss. There is so much for you …for all of us… to look forward to.
I doubt if the first prayer you learn will be the one that has been so meaningful to me during hard times past. But someday, when you get older and perhaps as I hold you close, let’s talk over this one so widely known but so seldom remembered:
“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
Love, Pops