Grandchildren are very different from our children. We ourselves are different from the days when we were parents. Older now and past the production years, we have time to want more and do more for grandchildren than we did for our own children.
I am Chinese born in China. My husband is French Canadian. Our lives in Canada have lead us further and further from our cultures. Living in BC for over 40 years, he is estranged from his native land too. I arrived in Canada at the age of 5. My Chinese is an old dialect that is only heard among the very old in the depths of China town.
I have walked the streets of London and Prague and I heard multiple languages all around me. Mixed marriages, language and food ties the world closer.
My wish was to give the gift of both French and Chinese to my grandchildren. My dream was to take them to Quebec with enough frequency and immerse them in French until I hear French from their own sweet lips. Then I would take them to China where we would all attend a Chinese language school. For several months we would live and speak Mandarin and create networks of friends that would remain with us for the rest of our lives.
This past summer we spent three weeks on Iles de la Madeleine. These are a small archipelago in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence with a land area of 205.53 square kilometres, 5 hour ferry ride from PEI or a simple flight from Montreal. The beaches, the food and the culture draws us there and this year was our 9th visit.
This time we brought our two grandchildren ages 4 and 3. I sat near them and watched my dream come true. They played with some French children on the beach. The game was simply to run from the ocean waves back to the pockets of warm fresh water in the dips along the beach, fall in, get up and then UN< DEUX< TROIS they would yell and run back into the waves.
Over top of the other voices, I heard my 3 year old granddaughter yell UN<DEUX<TROIS along with the other children. This was my confirmation that travel will fulfill my need to give my grandchildren the experience of life that will be my legacy for them.