Hey Grandma. Nene. Gigi. Abuela.  

There are many different names you might go by, but the role you play in our hearts is the same. You cradled me in your arms many moons ago, and now I am honored to watch you cradle children of my own. Encompassing them in your soft hands, and stroking their heads with your gentle fingers. I watch the way you look at them, and finally, I begin to understand the way you’ve always looked at me, with kind eyes beaming with contentment and a heart overflowing with unconditional love. You are the ultimate keeper of secrets, the wiper of tears, and the voice that sings softly in my head. You belonged to me from the moment your body allowed me to make you my home, and now you belong to my children. 

I know we’ve had our ups and downs. No lifelong love comes without its fair share of disagreements, disapproval, and sometimes even desolation. But like a ship lost in the night, you are my lighthouse. You have been the guiding force in my existence, and somehow I have always found my way home to you. You told me that I would understand one day, once I had kids of my own. I detested and resisted, and yet here I am, all these years later, often finding myself speaking the same words, crying the same tears, and filling my heart with the same love that you once did for me. That you still do for me. And you were right, I do get it now.

The love you have for my children surpasses anything I could have ever expected. The way you look at them tells me everything I need to know. You watch them with vigor, soaking in every fleeting moment, unintentionally reminding me to slow down and do the same. You speak words of kindness into their hearts. You acknowledge their animosities with patience and forgiveness. You bring laughter into every room. And you light us all up with the kind of glow that can only be ignited by the woman we’re lucky enough to call Grandma.

So here we stand, our souls entwined, our spirits eternally dancing through life together no matter where we might be. Our story is one of ancestral admiration and generational enchantment. We don’t know when this story began, or where it will end, so we simply sit in solidarity and share in our awe. You gave me life, and I multiplied it into something more meaningful than I could have ever imagined. And without a wince, you took in these new, meaningful little lives and sprinkled them with your everlasting magic. To the goddess my kids call Grandma, I just wanted to stop and say thank you. For everything that you do so well.