Last Sunday after church, I brought my daughter, granddaughter, Mother, and a bowl of cookie batter to my sister Doris’ house. We joined her and her daughter, two granddaughters, and my niece Joyous and her daughter. We had lunch together and then decorated Easter cookies and made chocolate peanut butter eggs. Doris, Kate, Mother, Joyous, Abby after the sugar cookies were baked. (Great Grandma Herr’s Sugar Cakes, p. 261, BLUSH) Another way to describe our time together would be that we are making a “grand sandwich” a new name for four-generation families — grandparents squeezed between grand ..read more

We are traveling the pilgrim’s path between love and death. Our home is filling up with emblems of beauty, hope, and care from thoughtful people who have chosen to come on pilgrimage with us. Our neighbors, family, and friends near and far have picked up the pilgrim’s staff and are traveling with us. Our pastor’s visit and prayer this past Monday, the day before surgery, enveloped us in all your love and the peace that passes understanding. The journey started in November with Stuart’s diagnosis of malignant melanoma. Now, the surgery on his parotid gland is finished. Next week we will return ..read more

Perhaps you have seen this neologism from my friend Kerry Byrne: If you have grandchildren, and were lucky enough to have them all together, or even in stages, over the holidays, you know how grandslump feels. I do. After the children and grandchildren gather up their luggage and head for the car, and we have stood there blowing kisses on the porch, I come back into the house and start vacuuming. It’s a habit I started twelve years ago when we had our first Christmas in Virginia with baby Owen, his parents, and his Aunt and Uncle. I may have have wanted the vacuum noise for droning company, i ..read more

He found a lump near his ear when he was shaving. He went to the doctor right away and was referred for tests and then to an ENT specialist/surgeon. The doctors said most of these tumors are benign. But to be sure, the surgeon ordered a deep needle biopsy. On Nov. 22 we received the report: malignant melanoma. A few days later, in a Sunday School class poetry workshop, two weeks after we joined Blossom Hill Mennonite Church, I wrote these words on a blank labyrinth page: I named the poem “Magnificat” because I identified with Mary in a new way. Here is the poem written in an easier-to read v ..read more

Dear reader, we are still writing the letter below to our grandchildren. They haven’t seen it yet. We invite you to pretend you are almost 12, or 10 (we chose to write to the developmental level of the older two. The younger one, age 5, will want to be right in there with them but will understand more later). Dear Owen, Julia, and Lydia, Your granddad and I have been sitting in our office for many months, talking about our family, learning new stories about the people who lived many years ago, most of them before you were born. You have known only one of the 28 people Granddad has researched ..read more

I am writing this post from New York City. For the last four days we have been exploring the place that we called home in 2011-2012, traveling with friends from Goshen, Indiana. One of the highlights was returning to Manhattan Mennonite Fellowship where I preached a sermon called “Loving Our Children’s Children.” I was rather rusty in the pulpit. I hadn’t preached a sermon for at least seven years. The last one was about story telling. This one about grandparenting. I shared my insecurity, and friends came to my rescue. About thirty people jumped on the question I put out on FB: “what is the g ..read more

Unlike most of us, author Melodie M. Davis can locate the exact day and place when the shape of her vocation came to her. She was gathering eggs in the chicken house on the family farm when she wrote these words: “On this day, November 18, 1967, Saturday afternoon at 4:30 p.m., I decided what I want to be: a Christian writer.”   Memoir of an Unimagined Career by Melodie M. Davis Having announced her calling at the tender age of 16, Melodie Miller might have continued on a straight line to authorship.  Instead, she accepted one invitation after graduating from college that turned in ..read more

If it seems like my recent posts have all been about grandchildren, you are right. Seven of my last ten essays featured grandchildren in some way. These three littles are moving rapidly in time and space, and I want to capture as many memories as possible. I know many of you have older grandchildren (mine are 5,9, and 11), or younger ones, or no grandchildren. Thanks for coming along for the ride regardless of your own situation. I hope I am leaving enough open spaces for you to plug in your own experiences of whatever age and attachments you have. Recently, my adventures with grown ups have i ..read more

Perhaps you’ve heard of the Silver Tsunami, the Age Wave that is sweeping the world? It’s now a controversial term because it implies older people will overwhelm society with their numbers and their needs. Perhaps it encourages fear of aging and disrespect for the elderly—ageism. By whatever name we call it, however, we are in the middle of enormous growth in the older population. This growth parallels the rise in the number of grandparents nationally and globally. What if we thought of aging instead as a bonfire instead of a tsunami? Bonfires are carefully designed to be both explosive in gro ..read more

The phrase “summer vacation” puts a smile on every kid’s face. Grandparents also love summer, because chances are the vacation plans might include them! Owen, Lydia, and Julia at Cousin Camp. Can you see the purple highlights the girls added to my hair? Hair styling is a current favorite with the granddaughters. We had three days of continuous celebration of summer here in Lititz when our son’s family from Tulsa and our daughter’s family from Lancaster were united at our house. I’ve been planning for those three days even while traveling in Ireland in May. We made up a Google Doc in advance ..read more