Lesson from Mr. Guild

This is Mr. Guild. He attends the 8:30 service with us and Sydney thinks he is awesome. She runs up to give him a five first thing when she gets to church and chats away with him. He is also one of the only church members Jack will have anything to do with.

I'm sure Mr. Guild has grandchildren (and possibly great-grandchildren) of his own, and I'm sure that he is an excellent grandpa. We're just happy to have him as a special Sunday friend.

I do think about my kids not being around a certain generation. My grandmothers are gone and Jeremy's are shockingly young. Great-grandma Nolen can still get on the floor to play and Nana Roberts may be less agile owing to her arthritis, but she's still much younger than I ever remember my great-grandmother's being. Sydney and Jack don't have the grandparents that you go visit in the nursing home. They don't see walkers or wheelchairs at family gatherings. Because of that, I'm very interested in making sure they see older folks.

Mr. Guild walks on his own, but slowly and holding on to the pew every now and again. I like that Sydney is having to learn to move slower around her older friend. Some of our other church friends do have walkers and one has an oxygen tank. Many have reached the age of rigidity where mental flexibility is hard and young people can be bothersome with their noise and speed. Sydney is learning to read their faces to know which ones came to church looking forward to seeing a certain exuberant little girl and which ones need a wider berth.

I hope that all of Sydney's relations stay healthy and mobile for a long time to come, but we all grow old (unless we don't) and I know that young children can be scared of the elderly and older children and teenagers can resent the slower paced visits that older relatives sometimes require.

By attending the early service, I feel that Sydney and Jack are getting a feel for that generation, so that when their very young great grandmothers and even younger grandmas join those ranks, they won't be ill at ease with the trappings of old age, seeing instead, the person still inside.