Last Updated on October 14, 2020 by Paul Farrell, MRP, JD, PhD

Silent Mentors: Gramma & Grampa

Silent Mentors: Gramma & Grampa

 

My “greatest mentors” … gramma & grampa!

They raised me on a diet of irish oatmeal,

faith and unconditional love!

 

Yes, the still small voice within …

I was an altar boy,

the first time I heard wasn’t in church,

it was from Gramma …

She was making bread …

That was 1947, I was 11 …

“Gram, why are you talking to yourself?”

A wry smile, then …

“I talk to myself so I can get to know everybody!”

I don’t remember any other words she ever said.

Nor Grandpa’s

In all the years I was raised by them,

can’t remember another word either said!

But they mentored me, just being there …

just being who they were.

Grampa waiting till I got home when out too late …

We ate toasted cheese sandwiches, two, three …

Gramma always had the house warm,

oatmeal ready before I want off to serve

early mass on cold dark days …

They taught love, caring, just being there

for a lost, hurt kid filled with anger

for a father who kidnapped me from

a drunken mom I loved …

Yes, mentors can be silent folks,

they hear you …

Even if you can’t remember the words,

your ‘still small voice” deep inside

heard their still small voice …

loved the oatmeal and toasted cheese …

Their silence was that still small voice within

… I used to think it was amnesia …

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