"I think it will be me, mommy"....

My four-year-old granddaughter Dewey calls me mommy while she calls her real mom "Mom"--just a difference of one syllable really. So when she calls for her "Mom" she is actually calling for my daughter and when she is looking for "mommy" she is looking for me. The other day while Dewey and I were at the hospital for a cough she was having, we saw this very old woman who had difficulty walking. In fact, she was assisted on both sides by what appear to be her relatives. The old woman, with great difficulty of movement, was ushered into a seat to wait for her turn to see the doctor and Dewey, ever the curious and inquisitive asked, "Mommy, why is she moving very slowly?" So I told her it is because the woman is already very old. I pursued her line of thinking and I asked, "Dewey, if mommy is going to be very old like that woman, who is going to help me when I walk?" And she gave me the sweetest answer, "I think it's going to be me, Mommy". Do you ever wonder why grandchildren are closer to grandparents than their real parents? You have the answer in that little story.

when work interferes with family and vice versa

Much as we all would like to be good in all aspects of our life-work, family, and community involvement-sometimes we cannot help it but neglect one or two of them. We just can't be in two places at the same time. For example, you are in the middle of your work at your office. All of a sudden you get a call telling you to be at a certain hospital because someone in the family is sick. What do you do ? Of course, you drop everything you're doing and rush to the hospital. It's a natural reaction which I believe is very much related to our instinct for survival. During moments like these, we come to grips with our values and priorities in life. In extreme cases when we are made to choose between two loves, we always hang on to our family. I've done this several times in the past when my two grown children were still kids. I'd skip work just to bring a sick child to a doctor. I've never left this task with anyone else. When it comes to hospital appointments, it was and is always me and this morning I have proven it again with my granddaughter Dewey. I had to miss three classes just to bring her to Dr. Leo Bollos, her pediatrician and a resident physician at the Silliman University Medical Center.