Family Bonds: Reflections on Great Granddad’s 90th Birthday

So Granddad turned 90!

90 can you believe that?

What a GREAT Grandad indeed.

That is a very long time to live.

We went away for the weekend to a rental vacation home to celebrate Granddad’s birthday. Adults only.  It was a nice time away.  It was so interesting to sit around the table in celebration of Alex’s Granddad’s 90^th. Granddads brother was there as well.  He is 88.  They are both in fine health.

The Gift of Multiple Generations

There’s something grounding about being connected to multiple generations at once.
To sit with someone who has lived nearly a century — who remembers a world that feels impossibly far away — is a privilege that you don’t fully recognize until later.

Grandparents connect us to where we come from.
They stretch the timeline of our families, reminding us that our lives didn’t start with us and won’t end with us.
Three generations around a table isn’t just a gathering — it’s a living story being handed down in real time.

The Lake House at Turtle Hill in Ontario, Canada

It’s inspiring to think of knowing someone, so close to you for so long don’t you think?

Siblings are such a special relationship.  Despite distance and possible differences they are there by your side from a young age until hopefully much later in life.

On Alex’s side both of the men on his Mothers side of the family have lived long healthy lives.

Alex and Granddad a few Thanksgivings ago

What we Carry Forward

As I get older, I find myself noticing the small ways we carry our people with us — their phrases, their humor, their stubbornness, their softness, their ways of moving through the world.

Maybe longevity isn’t only measured in years lived.
Maybe it’s also measured in how many pieces of them we keep living out.

Granddad’s quiet resilience.
My grandmothers’ steady practicality.
Their calm presence, their rituals, their way of anchoring a room.

We inherit more than we realize, often long before we know it

In my family both of my Grandmothers are both in their mid to late 80’s.

My Grandmother and I Remembrance Day in Ottawa 2011 at the Chateau Laurier Hotel where we stayed beside Parliment Hill

Aging as a Shared Journey

Watching two brothers at 90 and 88 sit together — still teasing, still laughing, still themselves — says something reassuring about aging that we don’t often hear.

Aging isn’t decline.
It’s companionship.
It’s stories.
It’s decades of inside jokes.
It’s surviving things together, surfing through the decades and still choosing each other through all the versions of life.

If we’re lucky, aging is something we get to do with people we love.

I always wonder at longevity.  There really is no set model to follow to live a long life.  My grandmothers while active ladies most certainly were not the type of women to go out and jog or go to the gym.

They gardened and walked.  They both smoked at some point during their lives and both enjoyed having evening drinks.  So I am going to continue to enjoy my evening drink and keep finding excuses to not run, I’d rather walk.

Noah and Eden showing Granddad how to use Daddys iphone

How Kids Experience Legacy

I love watching how children interact with older generations.
There’s no pressure.
No expectations.
Just curiosity, simplicity, and joy.

Kids don’t see age — they see connection.
Teaching Granddad how to use an iPhone.
Asking questions.
Laughing at things we adults overthink.

Children create a bridge between the past and the future without even realizing they’re doing it.