It’s Conor, my second grandson’s sixteenth birthday today
and I found myself thinking, not for the first time, how much grandchildren
mean. I have three, Liam (18 next
month), Conor, the birthday boy and Shannon (15 in a few short months) and what
a joy they bring to my life and how empty it would be without them. It’s been an exciting journey from seeing
each of them at the hospital when they were a few hours old to teenagers and
now a young man in Liam’s case.
My first visit back to England in 38 years was taken with
Michelle and Liam when he was 18 months old and we were visiting his
grandparents in Ireland. His name is
still in the big book in the lobby at Kylemore Abbey in Connemara where he “owns”
a tree in the forest.
I’ve been lucky enough to be able to take each of them away
somewhere – Liam to New Zealand when he was 10, Shannon to Canberra when she
was 9 and Conor to Melbourne a couple of times – an easy trip to pick as our
prime objective was at least one AFL game each time! All of these trips have been a dream as the
kids have been so easy to be with and such great company. I’ve been to every end of year concert at their primary school from Liam’s first year to Shannon’s last year in 2010 when she was Dux of the school – and how proud we all were of her achievement! Now Liam is off to University – the first major step in his adult life.
In the last couple of years their focus has been on cycling –
road racing and track – and once again, they approach it with enthusiasm. I believe the interest started with Liam who
was a triathlete at High School but preferred the cycling leg. Whilst I don’t go to the road races much I
try to be at the track cycling every Friday and love every minute of it. Shannon was selected in the State Junior Team
for the National Road Racing last year and Conor is doing very well against
strong competition as a sprinter at the track.
He’s also put up some good performances on the road along with Liam, who
didn’t compete during his last year at High School but is back in the thick of
it now.
I am just so proud of their achievements in life in general
and they each bring something different to my life. Liam, who has always been a somewhat reserved
child (much to my regret) is now tending to talk and interact with me more as he gets older and
has quite a wicked sense of humour on occasions. I hope as he matures we will develop a good
rapport as he probably doesn’t realise how important he is to me as my first
grandchild. Conor is my football “buddy”
amongst a million other things. We’ve
always had that in common and he comes to the football with me as often as
possible – always supporting the teams that Fremantle are playing! We have a
great time together – and I’m hanging out for the start of this next football
season! Shannon is my “debater” and she shares my love of history and books. I wish I had been able to take her to Scotland with me as I think she was have been fascinated by the history and pageantry. When we get together the conversations are so
wildly diversified. She has an avid
interest in just about everything and has to be the most interesting girl of
her age to talk with. We go with consummate
ease from history to politics to religion to law, you name it. She’s my little Australian Republican. I could spend hours with her just talking. So there you have it – thoughts that have come together because of a 16th birthday, a day off , a computer and time to think.
Thank you kids for just being YOU.
