In many ways it was a sad birthday for grandson Samu.
His father, Tony, is away in Calofornia. His paternal grandparents are in Kalajoki, Finland and his maternal grandparents, Annikki and me, are here in Oulu.
I had promised to ring Samu in the morning at 07:30 English time. Although I tried several times, the Newcastle line was not clear.
So as soon as I felt he would be back from school, we rang Newcastle, and in turn I and Annikki (in that order) sang our hearty "Happy Birthday" greetings to Samu. He actually tolerated his grandparents singing!
To give Samu something substantial, both sets of grandparents joined with Samu's parents, at Joanna's suggestion, to get him a new bike in England. So, when I was able to ask Samu whether he liked it, he described the colours, red and black as those of Real Madrid! Obviously he liked it as he was able to equate it to his love.
It is difficult to bear our grandchildren, all three of them, Samuel, Asha and Daniel, growing up so far away from us. They are children for so short a time that each day lost is a great tragedy in our hearts.
As I have told Samu many times, in a few years he will have many other interests and friends and his grandparents will be old foggies.
Samu has always expressed that it will never be so.
So long as we share the same interests - that is MY interest in HIS interests, we will remain as close as is possible for grandson with grandfather.
I am looking forward to "Superdog" returning for the summer holidays this year. Although it will be for just a short while, I certainly will enjoy every minute of our summer time together.
How I wish that little Asha will also be with us this summer, just as all of us cousins used to go to Kottayam to spend our holidays with our grandparents when we were kids.
Those are days that I can never forget, even in my old age!
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