Last night (Monday), was a birthday dinner for my grandmother who is turning 83 on Oct. 5.

Unfortunately, I didn’t find out about the dinner at a restaurant in Durand until Friday afternoon, which was three months after I was booked to referee a basketball game at Bureau Valley Junior High School and a week after I wrote four interviews and a photo shoot in my planner.

Still, when my mother sent me the text telling me about the family gathering for my favorite person on the planet, I tried to maneuver and manipulate my plans, to no avail.

When I told my lovely girlfriend, Kristen (I asked permission to use her name in columns and Edge of Your Seat Podcast episodes because she is the one) about the dinner, she choked up a little bit because she lost her grandmother last week.

Holding back tears, she looked at me and said, ‘I know it’s last minute and your busy, but make sure you visit your grandmother.’

Being there for her during the last week, and every day since we met January 18, 2023, I immediately knew where she was coming from and agreed with her. I still couldn’t go to Durand, but a personal gathering with my grandparents is in the works for later this week or next week.

This may sound immoral or simply wrong (it is), but when I was younger, way younger, I always thought, ‘When elderly pass away, we should be grateful they’re not in pain anymore and there isn’t any reason to be sad because they lived a long life.’

What an idiot I was.

Yes, it’s awesome they’re not in pain anymore and they’re in Heaven living their best afterlife and watching us down here, probably laughing as we do the dumb things we do. That part was right in my young thought process.

But not being sad, was definitely dumb.

Our grandparents are usually the nicest, sweetest, kindest, most forgiving people we will ever have in our lives. When we get in an argument with our parents or our siblings, who is the one we usually sit with, eat a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie, and vent all of our qualms with, grandma or grandpa.

Who are the first ones in the bleachers for your basketball game or band concert, grandma or grandpa.

Who sends you birthday cards, even when you’re in your 30s and 40s, in the 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s when everything is digital, stamp prices rise every couple of months (exaggeration), grandma and grandpa.

When you get in trouble or do something that makes others never talk to you or interact with you again, who opens their door with a smile on their face or calls you to get your side of the story or see if you’re OK, grandma or grandpa.

I could continue the list of what grandparents mean to grandchildren across our universe and other universes, but you get the point.

They are a huge part of our lives from the time we’re born until they’re unfortunately taken from us.

My grandmother is still with us and I’m currently tearing up thinking about the void I’ll have in my life when she is no longer here. My grandfather, too.

Our planners get overbooked with career or personal endeavors, but the one thing we can’t do is forget the people who mean the most to us and not spend valuable time with them.

I made sure I held Kristen’s hand, hugged her, and gave her my shoulder anytime she has needed it in the last week and will do the same moving forward.

It doesn’t matter how old someone is, if they mean something to you and the love is unconditional like a grandparent/grandchild bond is, it’s hard to lose them and we should be sad.

‘Make sure you visit your grandmother’ before you can’t anymore.