Page 32 - Senior Link Magazine Spring 2018 - Online Magazine

HONORING SENIORS
2 2
Senior Senior
As children, we are supposed to
rely on our parents, but it’s a little
hard to rely on someone who
isn’t there. I came to rely on my
grandparents. My grandmother
has often said, “Erika, you are the
child I’m going to do right by.” I
never understood what she meant,
and, to be honest, I still don’t. But
one thing that I do know is that
it is because of my grandparents
that I’m writing this now. My
grandparents are part of a
generation of workers, and I think
that we, as the younger generation,
need to learn from them, as much
as we can.
I grew up around the mentality of
“work hard and you will succeed,”
and I try to follow it every day,
even if I’ve been pulling all-
nighters to study because I missed
32 Lubbock Senior Link
A
Legacy
of
Stories
by Erika Diggs
a few days of school. I can’t help until January 24, 2017. That day
but put my best foot forward. I lost someone very precious, my
grandfather.
As young children, my
grandparents had very little. I I treasure the memories of him
remember sitting across the dinner sitting with me at the dinner table
table, listening to my grandfather and talking. It could be about
tell how he would wake up before anything, anything but politics. We
the rooster crowed so that he could discuss news, history, even
could move the cattle from one the politics of ancient Rome – just
side of the ranch to the other. not current politics in America.
My grandmother’s experience That topic was off-limits. Both of
was similar; she would always us despised the subject.
get up early and help her mother But history is how we bonded. It
make breakfast for her father was the way we communicated
and little sister. I am thankful when general conversation lagged.
for these stories, especially my I fondly remember one day when
grandfather’s, especially now
that I can’t hear them anymore. I came home from school. I
There’s a saying, “You never value mentioned that, in my U.S. History
something until it’s gone.” I never class, we had talked about World
took it very seriously because War II battles, and I saw my
I had never really known loss grandfather’s eyes light up. We