I sit across the dining room table, looking at my wife. She has a sad smile on her face. I can tell that she is trying to be strong for Rory and Lorelai. Yet I know her too well; I know what she is feeling because I too feel the exact same way.
It is hard to believe that it was over forty years ago that we first met. I look at myself in the mirror and I see all the years that have gone by. Yet when I look at her I still see the young woman that stole my heart. I still see the fiery redhead who made my heart race and provoked me every chance she got. In her I somehow see the past, the present, and the future all at the same time.
Our marriage hasn't always been an easy one. My mother, my beloved mother, disliked her from the start. I tried to keep out of their quarreling. I loved them both too much to get involved. Yet I found myself siding more and more with my new wife against my mother. That only made my mother dislike her more.
We had two years of solitude until our daughter arrived. She was loud and challenged us from the very start. I loved being a father, yet I found myself spending more and more time at work. In order to provide for them, I had to leave my wife and my daughter at home. I never realized how little I knew about my own child until I learned from my wife that we were to be grandparents many years too early.
It was devastating. Our daughter was the top student in her class. She was headstrong and rebellious, but she was also the most intelligent person in her grade. She had an excellent future ahead of her.
It was a girl – our granddaughter. The first time that I held her I promised her that I would learn everything there is to know about her. I wouldn't make the same mistakes as I had with my own child. Yet I didn't get the chance. One day my granddaughter was gone. And so was my daughter. I lost my wife that day, too. She was physically there, but emotionally she was heart-broken and couldn't get out of bed. Nothing that I tried to do to help her seemed to make any difference.
As with all difficult times in our life together, things seemed to get better. We learned to live without our daughter and granddaughter. It became a little easier as the years went by and we were awarded with a bit of contact. We cherished every moment, as rare as they were.
Every time that I saw my granddaughter I felt my heart grow larger. I could tell that there was something special about her.
My wife has given me many wonderful things over the years, but the greatest gift of all came one day out of the blue. Our daughter needed money and so she shed her pride and came to us. She needed to pay for Rory to attend an exclusive private school. I was more than willing to pay anything for my granddaughter to have an education. Yet my wife would only agree upon one condition – Friday night dinners.
Those dinners changed our lives. They gave me the chance to know my granddaughter. They gave me the chance to see the kind of woman that my own daughter had become. I was able to make up for some of the time that I had missed with my granddaughter. We bonded immediately over our love of books and learning. I watched her grow from a shy fifteen year old child into a confident high school graduate.
I sat in the audience as she graduated. It was the proudest moment of my life. Well, one of the two proudest. I don't even know how to explain the pride that I feel in sharing an alma mater with her. I had always hoped that my daughter would follow in my footsteps and go to Yale. When she left our home, I watched her future go with her. It didn't make up for the loss of my daughter, but it warmed my soul to see my granddaughter walk across the same stage that I had once walked across as I too became an alumnus of Yale University.
I look across the room to where my wife is sitting next to our granddaughter. I owe every good thing in my life to her. I am the man that I am today because of her. She has stood by me for forty-two years of marriage. She has devoted her life to taking care of me and organizing my life. I know for a fact that I would be no where without her. I say a prayer of thanks for her every day. There is no one that makes me happier than her. She's given me the greatest gift of my life – the legacy of my daughter and granddaughter.