Is this actually a word in English? In Flemish it is, ‘viergeslacht‘ is a noun, used when there are 4 generations of the same sex in one family.

I am not sure if this really is a thing, but it was to my Gran -my mother’s mother-, so it became important to us all. The day my daughter was born we were a ‘four-generations‘ (viergeslacht) and that had to be eternalized, over and over again, with a photograph of the four of us. Gran, my mum, me and my daughter. The photo was framed and put on top of gran’s TV, and each time the most recent replaced the previous one. We were all aging but we only really noticed the little baby turning into a young adult.

My gran has long passed, but she still lives strongly within me. I remember how she took me to see London when I was just a kid, one of my first trips abroad, (she was an Anglophile) and how I took her to that same city many years later when I was an adult and she moved about with a walking stick, because she thought she wouldn’t be able to ever go there again.

That is what I thought of when my mum (not yet walking with a stick but about the same age) decided to come and visit me together with my daughter (about the same age as me back then), because it might be the last time she can. She wouldn’t be able to fly out here on her own, but her granddaughter would accompany her. Just like I accompanied mine many years ago.

That exact moment when you realise something funny : we all take each others place at some time!

My mother is now the same age as my gran was, I am my mother’s age and my daughter is mine ; the only one missing is the 4th one, the granddaughter.
As a parent we guide our children but then comes the day when the children guide the parents. First it comes as a shock, but then you realise you best enjoy it while you still can and you go for it.

Age is just a number and time is superfluous, you are only as old as you feel you are, but it’s on moments like this you realize we are all moving up on the age ladder.

My month alone has been shortened with a mere 3 weeks, but you won’t hear me complain ; we will be having some real 3 generation quality time, as if it were the last time! And a blast! This will be three full weeks of memory-creating. What a delight!

The last time…or not!

Photocredit Vadimguzhva