How blessed are we to have a beautiful daughter who married a handsome young gentleman responsible for developing a highly successful business?
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They presented us with three fabulous grandchildren, including beautiful twin girls and a handsome young boy.
In addition, they lived only blocks away making our frequent visits both easy and memorable.
One day, however, they decided to move to Montana.
It’s where, as a child, our future son-in-law, together with mom and dad and four brothers, visited during the summers. It’s beautiful country with friendly people and distinct seasons.
He convinced our daughter to move there where they built a home and raised their children.
Eventually, their kids were old enough to have families of their own, happily settling near their parents.
Our daughter and son-in-law eventually wound up purchasing a beautiful home on the ninth green of a fabulous golf course.
The views are spectacular, their business is thriving, and they’re a happy couple enjoying a wonderful life.
Regrettably, they’re two flights and over a 1,000 miles away, so we don’t get to see them as often as we’d like.
Or their children.
Or the great-grandkids.
It seems like only yesterday our daughter was a sweet young toddler, happily enjoying life together with us.
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Now, she’s a grandmother.
Living far away.
Thankfully, our two sons, together with their five young children, live only a few miles from us.
It means a drive of just minutes for our visits, as opposed to a taxi to the airport and two flights to see our daughter and the rest of our family.
Although distant, it means our visits are all the more memorable.
We just got home after a lovely stay at their beautiful home where we celebrated our great-granddaughter’s first birthday.
Also the seventh birthday of our great-grandson.
There were two separate parties with some 30 friends and family at each.
We made two birthday cakes. I did the baking and my wife added her gifted decorator skills.
One was a chocolate cake with whipped cream and fresh fruit, and the other was a multi-layered so-called “Dobos Torta” a favorite of my Hungarian family.
My wife also prepared several dinners including baked ziti with meatballs and sausages, while I prepared my specialty — homemade bagels: sesame, poppyseed and cinnamon-raisin, enjoyed at breakfasts and several lunches.
Coincidentally, Bobby, my friend of nearly eight decades, also settled in the same town as our daughter. There, they all enjoy a quiet and tranquil life.
As young kids, Bobby and I became fast friends as we lived in the same apartment house in the so-called “Rockaways,” an area located near the beach in busy Queens County, N.Y.
Now, by sheer coincidence, he and his wife, along with my daughter and her family, are living in the same town, just minutes apart, in peaceful Bozeman, Mont.
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What are the odds?
So we never fail to also get together with him and his bride each time we visit.
Only yesterday, we were a family of three: our young daughter, my wife and me.
A short period later, add two sons, eight grandchildren and five greats.
It seems the older one gets, the quicker times flies.
Life is indeed short.
But wonderful.
Erdos is a freelance humor columnist. Contact him at [email protected].
