Late last night, as I was driving to the train station to pick up my oldest granddaughter from college, I felt a moment of sheer bliss come over me. For an instant, I was overcome with the feeling of how fortunate I was and just very thankful for being.

When you’re at the stage of life I am, this is just one of those instances you feel compelled to share. She had called us that morning and said she wanted to come down from her college in Washington, DC (George Mason University) to spend the weekend. She has some friends in this area and they wanted to get together for some beach time. It didn’t matter that she wasn’t coming solely just to see us, what mattered was that she felt close enough that she wanted to be with us as well. We will always take any time with our girls we can get!

As I neared the station I recalled another endearing time in my life. The last time I went to a train terminal to welcome somebody was when I was a little boy in Elmira, NY waiting for a train at the old Lackawanna station. It was carrying my beloved grandparents from Connecticut. I still remember how joyful I was running up to hug them as they stepped down on the platform. Now here I was all those many, many years later, reversing roles and becoming the grandparent waiting to embrace the grandchild. What an exquisite turn of events!

There are always a few special times in our lives and if you’re really lucky, as I am, you’ll live long enough to enjoy an exceptional one such as this. Some of my readers know exactly what I mean. As I’ve always said, grandchildren are God’s way of saying “Thanks for hanging in there.”

And now YOU know.