With Grandparents Day coming up the author decided to take a moment to celebrate the incredible contributions grandparents have made to our lives. She asked her readers to share about their own grandparents— and their own grandchildren. She was inundated with inspiring stories, and here featured below is a heartwarming grandparent story. Happy Grandparents Day everyone!
Richard Hahn, grandfather of Abby, Caden and Lily
“I started reading to my first grandchild, Abby, not too long after she was born, and continued doing so until she started devouring chapter books on her own. Around the time she turned four, technology allowed us to continue bonding through books as we read together once a week via Skype, the video computer hookup. My wife and I would buy two copies of illustrated classics and new releases or scoured the library for a duplicate. Abby would have one copy in Pittsburgh and I would read from another in Youngstown, Ohio. We would turn the pages together. She would ask me what certain words meant. She would comment on the story line or how ‘pretty’, ‘handsome’, ‘scary’, or ‘brave’ the characters were. We’d finish each story by looking into the camera and saying together ‘Theeeee end.’We did this until she was around 6. And, boy, do I miss it.
That the act of reading together, whether she was sitting on my lap or 65 miles away, created a special bond that I will always cherish, and one, I believe, she will as well. Now, even at 9 years of age, she still likes to jump up on my lap and read silently to herself. I just smile because I know I’ve helped nurture her love of reading, learning and imagining. I hope one day as she starts reading to her own children — and grandchildren — she will whisper to them, ‘I remember when my Buddy read to me just like this’.” Shelley Emling - Guest Writer Huff Post
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