First comes the rush of wonder and delight: You’re going to be a grandmother!—your reward for all those years of sleepless nights and worry over your child who now, miraculously, will soon become a parent too.
And yet, as the smart, irreverent and unflinchingly honest essays in Eye of My Heart attest, becoming a grandmother is one of life’s most profound, complicated, and sometimes surprising passages—especially in today’s world where grandparents are working longer, adult children often live far away, and divorce and remarriage touch multiple generations. There are unsurpassed joys to be sure, but most grandmothers also contend with unexpected emotions, complex family dynamics, and no small number of ironies as they find their way in the new order.
Barbara Graham felt devastated when her son and daughter-in-law moved with their new baby from Graham’s neighborhood in Washington, D.C. to Paris. As she discloses in her title essay, she was forced to examine her own expectations about grandmotherhood. For insight, solace, and comic relief she turned to a group of remarkable writers, all grandmothers, to give voice to a role that is as primal as parenthood, but which is usually discussed in the most simplistic and sentimental terms.
In this groundbreaking collection you will encounter the real stories that usually go untold. Free of platitudes, the essays in Eye of My Heart are bound by a common thread: a love for grandchildren that knows no bounds, despite very real boundaries and limitations.