One of my favorite songs is "Grandma's Hands" by Bill Withers. The song is a tribute to a nurturing grandmother that shows love to her family and her community with just her hands. Grandparents have always played an important role in the African-American family. Many of us grew up multi-generational homes with grandparents or maybe your grandparent lived down the street. Grandparents often introduce their grandchildren to family rituals such as family dinners, cultural rituals, history, spirituality and God. Grandparents have the ability to tie generations together with their past and present.
Grandparent's Day would be a great opportunity to sit down and honor a grandparent, great aunt/uncle, or other elders in the family by recording or writing down their life stories. You can ask questions about their involvement with the Civil Rights movement, the family’s migration, and military service. Ask if your family has a family Bible. Ask to see pictures of family members and help document who is in the pictures. Ask about family traditions, favorite recipes or past family reunions. Angela Walton-Raji (http://african-nativeamerican.blogspot.com/) once said, if you just drop a few key words you might jar their memory and get an amazing narrative to come out.
Happy Grandparent's Day!
"Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children." Alex Haley
Written by
AAHGS Member and Blogger
Trisha Mays-Cummings
http://journeythroughthegenerations.com
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