Below, you’ll also see “Generations” and “Generations II”. In “Generations”, I have my now 3 year old, Jake, at 6 months facing his then 89 year old great grandfather. My children and my grandfather share the same birthday month, and when I was up visiting my grandfather with my new baby, Josh, I snapped a picture of them looking at each other. Joshua is 5 months and my grandfather is now 92.

His vision is nearly gone and he has been moved into an assisted care facility for the remainder of his days. He lived alone for 92 years, with help from his children-my mother and Uncle-who both live nearby.

As much as my family wanted to move him in with us, he insisted in being placed in a senior care facility. He wanted the ability to socialize and needs help with certain functions that we could not always help him with.

There are times his legs just give out. In order to use a restroom, he has to have a machine lift him to assist him into a wheelchair. While I’m grateful he has the help of the aides in the home, I once heard a female aide call him “Papa” as she patted him on the head.

I’m sure he probably loved it, but I was brought to tears. Here is a man who fought in WWII, lost 2 children in a German Concentration camp where my family was captured and taken when the Germans invaded Poland. My mother and her younger brother were the only 2 of my grandfathers 4 children to survive the work camp.

He speaks multiple languages and once walked for miles to retrieve a single apple for my ailing mother. As many times as he escaped the camp to fight the Germans, he always returned for his family.

When the war came to an end, my extended family was sent to Australia. My Uncle came down with the Chicken Pox, I believe, and my grandparents were forced to take the second boat that led to the Americas with my mother and her brother.

I was told that my Uncle was potty trained at just a year old, and that he trained himself because the conditions on the boat were so bad, everyone on board was ill. Too ill to change a diaper or help a child. Since he knew he didn’t want to sit in his own filth, he found his own way to use the latrine.

My mother also once told me that once she overheard her mother speaking to my Father’s mother. My Paternal grandmother’s family arrived in the States on the Mayflower, and my grandmother told my Babci that. Babci, my mothers mother and my namesake, then innocently told her “Oh, my family came over on a boat too!”

It’s amazing how once simple picture taken spontaneously during a recent visit can invoke so many memories and so much emotion in me. I am grateful to have a grandparent survive long enough to meet my children and blessed to have been able to share this with you.

"Generations"

"Generations II"