Annie talks to her grandchildren and great-grandchildren

In the family, I have   5children, 14 grandchildren and already 3 great-grandchildren,

I have been a widow for 12 years, but I know that my couple has always been the mainstay of the family.

Grandparents, we are fortunate to be able to take some time to listen to our grandchildren. Also, when we meet them or when they have questions that concern them, they dare to question us. I get these questions as gifts.  Depending on their age, the answer will seem more or less easy ... And yet!

At the beginning of the school year, my 9-year-old great-grandson introduces me to the choice he must make for his Wednesday afternoon: either go to his tennis training, or  get to the "cate" that is at the same time? For him, tennis seems very important ... but  isn’t it in my role to help him to look at what this time of sharing and discovery with his friends might be: who is Jesus, what does he tell us so that we may be happier, how does he come to give meaning to what we live, learn to respect others, to share, to forgive...?

I saw in his eyes an interrogation, but, for now, tennis is paramount. So, I suggest him to  look for another timetable for catechism.

To follow ....

This Sunday, one of my granddaughters, a student, asks herself the question and asks me: why get married in church?

I explain to her that the love that makes a boy and a girl vibrate, which is the origin of the couple, comes from the Love of God.  Also when we have faith, that is, when we put our trust in God, marriage in the church invites us in front of family and friends, to commit ourselves to each other to entrust this love to God so that He may give us his strength and make this Love of the couple sacred.      

Vast question ... vast reflection ... when around us we see so many couples breaking this engagement.

How to relearn to love in the long term?  How do you take the time to talk to each other like in the early days?

A few years ago, one of my granddaughters, aged 25, called me to find out how I had reacted to the announcement of her life choice: she told me that she had settled into life with a young woman her age.

A few minutes of silence to catch my breath .... I know this situation to have heard about it from others but from there to be confronted with it... !

Comes a first question from me: "Have you taken the time to think? Don't you have a fun party? Then other questions, in the course of our exchange: "Is your encounter based on love, not selfish love but a feeling based on respect for each other, a love and a sharing that lead you to grow in truth and sincerity?"

Her affirmative answers lead me to say her, very sincerely, I rejoice in their happiness. In the phone I heard some sobs ... She had informed her parents, but what her grandmother would think was very important for her future.

Today we welcome them both, in our large family, like other couples and they form a happy couple.

In families, unfortunately, there are not only joys ... At the beginning of the  year, my 54-year-old son, who had been married for 23 years and with two daughters,  one 20 and one 14, told me that his wife was leaving him for another person.

He hadn't seen anything coming, trusting his wife, as you would think in a couple of this age.

It is at this time that the family is important, to welcome, without judgment, to listen to suffering and try to warm hearts.

Parents, grandparents, we are here to show our sense of welcome, to be a sign of a certain stability,  to listen, to offer a refuge, but also to give a lot of tenderness and smiles that provide security so important in this shaky world.