{"id":183,"date":"2009-11-07T20:48:16","date_gmt":"2009-11-07T20:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jameswmfrank.commemoratemylife.me\/?p=183"},"modified":"2019-02-01T21:36:55","modified_gmt":"2019-02-01T21:36:55","slug":"reflections-grandfather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jameswmfrank.commemoratemylife.me\/?p=183","title":{"rendered":"Reflections of a New Grandfather"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today I became a grandfather for the first time.\u00a0 So many negative clich\u00e9s had previously come to mind &#8211; old man, senior, autumn of life.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-185\" src=\"https:\/\/jameswmfrank.commemoratemylife.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Jack-James-Day-1-01-e1430837361789.jpg\" alt=\"Jack James Day 1-01\" width=\"500\" height=\"752\" \/>\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-186\" src=\"https:\/\/jameswmfrank.commemoratemylife.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Jack-James-Day-1-06-e1430837350184.jpg\" alt=\"Jack James Day 1-06\" width=\"500\" height=\"332\" \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-187\" src=\"https:\/\/jameswmfrank.commemoratemylife.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Jack-James-Day-1-04-e1430837342958.jpg\" alt=\"Jack James Day 1-04\" width=\"500\" height=\"332\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I had no idea how much fun it could be.\u00a0 Sure, you\u2019re shelling out even after they leave the nest.\u00a0 (Man IS the only animal that lets them back in, by the way.)\u00a0 But when I bought the first present for a newborn grandchild, I was totally hooked.<\/p>\n<p>Today, Molly and I went to a large toy store, the kind that movies are made about.\u00a0 (I could imagine the shelves coming alive at night.)\u00a0 I couldn&#8217;t help but smile.\u00a0 I recommend that everyone take the time to experience that feeling.\u00a0 I immediately became a lifetime member of the store when they offered to wrap it for free.<\/p>\n<p>Headed to the hospital, my mind raced with memories of the past.\u00a0\u00a0 Like the day Mary was born.\u00a0 I remember the weather, and when we arrived at the hospital \u2013 the day of Grey Cup in Canada \u2013 almost spiritual.\u00a0 I remember the look on Heather\u2019s face, Mary\u2019s mom, as she was nearing delivering \u2013 \u201cYou bastard, you caused this!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I thought about all the times I could remember about Mary growing up.\u00a0 They became Reflections in my mind.<\/p>\n<p>Reflections of the way life used to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today I became a grandfather for the first time.\u00a0 So many negative clich\u00e9s had previously come to mind &#8211; old man, senior, autumn of life. \u00a0 I had no idea how much fun it could be.\u00a0 Sure, you\u2019re shelling out even after they leave the nest.\u00a0 (Man IS the only animal that lets them back &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jameswmfrank.commemoratemylife.me\/?p=183\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Reflections of a New Grandfather&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-on-maturing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameswmfrank.commemoratemylife.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameswmfrank.commemoratemylife.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameswmfrank.commemoratemylife.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameswmfrank.commemoratemylife.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameswmfrank.commemoratemylife.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=183"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jameswmfrank.commemoratemylife.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5922,"href":"https:\/\/jameswmfrank.commemoratemylife.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183\/revisions\/5922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameswmfrank.commemoratemylife.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameswmfrank.commemoratemylife.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameswmfrank.commemoratemylife.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}