There are events that you imagine long before they occur. I don’t know when I first imagined myself graduating from college, but I thought about my graduation before it occurred. I played in he band, so I was at every graduation ceremony before I got my turn to walk into the room with a cap and gown. I thought about my wedding quite a bit before it occurred. Our ordinations were significant events. And there are lots of other similar events: births of children, Easter, Christmas, birthdays and anniversaries.

For some reason, when our grandson was born, I decided to make a row boat and name it in his honor. I imagined a small pulling boat with a wineglass transom with his name on it. I could imagine myself and a grandson going on all sorts of adventures with the boat, exploring harbors and quiet waters in the Puget Sound near his home, lakes and reservoirs around our home and rivers, ponds and other waters. A boat is a great tool for adventure and grandpas and grandsons seem well suited for adventures.

So I selected plans for a boat and began to build. It was taking shape by his first birthday and by then I realized that his name, Elliot Thomas, was a bit too long for the small transom of a yawl. By then his father had taken to calling him “Mister E.” The pun of that name with the word mystery amused me. Every child is, of course, a mystery that slowly reveals itself throughout his or her lifetime. The boat became the Mister E. When it got to finish stage, gold letters were ordered for the transom. A few rainy days caused the postponement of the formal launching ceremony, but I have had several fine hours of rowing since the little boat took to the water. Rowing suits me. It is good exercise and a fun way to share my love of the water with others. I have owned canoes and kayaks and they are wonderful craft. My kayaks have been personal vehicles, taking only one person at a time. We have tandem canoes, and a couple that easily take three people at a time, but canoes have their own feel and many people experience them as “tippy,” and they aren’t the best places for toddlers who are prone to sudden movements and who desire to stand up from time to time.

The events of last week included a trip to West Marine to get a properly fitted life jacket for our eighteen month-old grandson. He seemed as happy with the purchase as I was.

Yesterday was the day for the dream come true. Our son had taken the day off of work and so there were five of us heading toward Boston Harbor near Olympia, WA: two parents, two grandparents and Mister E. The day was perfect. It was sunny, but not too warm. There was no wind, a rare occurrence in the Puget Sound. The water was glassy and calm with no waves in sight. The tide was receding and there was plenty of gravel beach exposed. The little boat slid gracefully into the water. It looks great to my eye, just the right proportions for a pulling boat with enough rocker to hold that transom with its gold letters out of the water. I went to the harbor ahead of the rest and took a short paddle after launching the boat. Soon the others arrived.

The first trip passengers for a trip around the harbor were Elliot and his dad. We took a look at a heron standing on a raft, explored some of the wooden boats that call Boston Harbor home and tied to get Elliot to see a harbor seal who was swimming in the area, but not interested in coming close to our boat. Next there were rides for Elliot and his mother, for grandma and grandpa and a few moments for pictures.

I was sitting alone in the boat with the others on the dock preparing to row to the boat launch to take the boat out of the water when Elliot made it clear that he wanted to get back in the boat. So I lifted him and stood him between my legs, where he rode as I rowed the boat to shore. It was a short trip in shallow water, but it was a great moment, nonetheless.

Some things in life are better in reality than they are in imagination. There is no way to really anticipate the birth of a child or grandchild. There is no way to imagine the joy of the wedding or graduation of a child. As much as I had anticipated taking a row with my grandson, the reality was way better than I could have imagined. It was a perfect day, with a confident and cheerful toddler who is at home in his world and interested in every detail from the creak of the oarlocks to the sound of the seagulls. He is at home in his world and each new adventure is a time of joyous discovery. And his parents are generous enough to allow his grandparents to share some of those discoveries.

There have been and will continue to be plenty of days when I wish we lived much closer to our grandson. But there is some truth to the old saying, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” Because our times of being face-to-face with our grandson are limited, they seem even more precious when they occur. And love transcends whatever physical distances we experience. We, of course, are extremely fortunate to have access to generous vacation leave and the ability to travel. And travel to be with family is a priority for Elliot’s parents. We get to see each other multiple times each year.

There are some things that you know you will remember for the rest of your life. Even if age and illness begin to rob me of the accuracy of my memories, I am convinced that there is nothing that can take away the pure joy of rowing a boat with my grandson.



And the best part is that I can imagine doing it again and again and again.

Copyright © 2012 by Ted Huffman. I wrote this. If you want to copy it, please ask for permission. There is a contact me button at the bottom of this page. If you want to share my blog a friend, please direct your friend to my web site.