Lasts and Firsts

I read several yahoo groups on a daily basis. Well, maybe it is more accurate to say I scan them and focus on subjects that seems to perk my interest. I read a couple of cooking ones, one that organizes housework, one that focuses on Diabetes, one for quilters, and one that plans for Christmas twelve months a year. Now, obviously I am not that organized but I like the daily small challenges and even do some of them...I do have a shiney sink most days and my bed is always made. Yesterday a post from a woman caught my eye. She was talking about how she was sad because her child was graduating from high school and she was facing all the lasts that go along with that. As I read about her last prom, her last PTA meeting,and other lasts, I realized that in a way I am doing the lasts also. I seldom reply or post to these groups but felt compelled to write to her. I wrote that I too had done all the lasts with my own three boys and was now doing them with the last of the grandkids, my two grandgirls. I guess to be perfectly honest I wasn't all that sad when my boys finished school and moved on to adulthood, Raising three boys can be a challenge at times. I wouldn't miss the last call from the school principal, the last driving ticket, the last D/F slip from school, etc. If you're a parent you understand. But, grow up they did, as they must and should. All of a sudden I had time to do the things I wanted to do and believe me I jumped in with both feet. Before I knew it, I had daughters in law and the grandkids began to arrive...five of them within six years and the firsts started again. First birthday, first tooth, first steps, first day at school, first school program, and so many more. And the wonderful part...I didn't get the calls from school, the arguments that are a normal part of raising kids. But if you think for one minute that you worry less about your grandkids than your own flock, think again. For all the joy they bring, they bring worry too. Now my last two will graduate from high school in a few weeks and we will finish with the lasts and start again with the firsts. For, before I know it, there will be weddings again and new babies and all the wonders that a new generation brings. I only hope I am healthy enough to enjoy every last and every first that is yet to come.