Grandparents Describe What Love Means To Them (And It Will Melt Your Heart)

I like to think that each one of us thinks about love in at least a slightly different way from the next person. Maybe it’s our upbringing, the relationships we’ve been in, or both, but many things in our life can shape what we come to think of when we hear the word “love” – whether it’s romantic, platonic, or familial. As you move through life, get older, and have different experiences, I can only imagine that your definition of love continues to evolve, so I asked five grandparents what love means to them, and here’s what they had to say:

1. “Love is what I am reminded of each day with my family. I am very lucky that my family has moved close to me – my two children are nearby, and visit regularly. Every time they come in, I feel love. I’ve always felt this way about love in some respect; it’s always felt like building a family was building the love within our family. But now it’s really just me and my two children and one grandchild, and having them here is when I feel most surrounded by love.” – Margaret, 74

2.“Love is committing, and then working at that commitment. Marriage, no matter what anyone says, will not always be perfect. It will get rocky and hard and you will have to fight for it to keep it alive. Love is committing to that along with the good times, and knowing that your husband or wife is doing the same. Knowing that they want to fight to stay by your side, just as you want to for them.” – Esther, 83

3. “I think you can find love is so many different parts of life. As you get older, you realize that people will really go out of their way to make you comfortable and happy. Perhaps that’s just the circumstance, but maybe those people have always been a part of my life and I was not paying as much attention before. I find love in warm gestures, and when people do things not because they have to do them, but because they want to make the additional effort. Love to me means sharing things with each other, and making others feel at home and at ease wherever you are. When people make me feel that way, or I make someone else feel that way, that is an expression of love. Of course, my family is a great source of love, but there is also other love all around us.” – Meena, 73

4. “What does love mean to me? Love has meant a lot of different things to me at different points in my life. I have fallen in love many times, romantically. When I got married, I thought that was a specific type of love that I would never find again, but I did years later. Having children was, for me, the strongest type of love in the world. I still think about my 33-year-old daughter on the day she was born, because I learned to love in a way I did not know I was able to. I have felt yet another type of love for my grandchildren. All of these things fall under the umbrella of love, but have felt different and new each time.” – Michael, 80

5. “When my granddaughter looks into my eyes, and asks me a question. There’s no feeling like it. She feels like I am this endless source of wisdom, which is both flattering and untrue. That is what love is for me.” – Jean, 79