Welcome to the beginning of Fall! We hope your summer was fruitful and filled with time spent with family and friends. As we enter this new season, we at Angels Heart would like to point out a very important day of the month – Grandparents’ Day. It falls on September 8th every year and is oftentimes overlooked when it comes to appreciative holidays such as Mother’s and Father’s Day. As such, because so many of us have or know at least one grandparent, it seems like as good a time as any to offer them a show of gratitude.

Though it can be easy to default to gifting material items for these purposes, we urge you to consider choosing to perform acts of service for the grandparents in your life as an alternative. Listed below are a few things you can do to make this happen!

Buy them groceries. Going out and shopping for necessities as an elderly person can be daunting and exhausting, especially if they’re facing chronic illnesses that are a detriment to their day to day health. By taking the initiative to get your grandparents even a few days worth of food or other household cleaning items, you can make their lives easier so they don’t have to worry about whether or not their house is stocked. This is especially helpful if they suffer with something like dementia that alters their memory and makes curating a grocery list for themselves challenging. You as their family or friend can also rest easier knowing they have at least these basic needs met.

Clean their house. Perhaps the hardest action of the list (because many people aren’t fans of cleaning to begin with) but absolutely one of the most impactful. When older people reach a point where they’re considerably weaker and begin to neglect their surroundings, their home is usually the first place to feel that shift. A clean home is something people at every age take for granted, so imagine how much brighter the grandparents in your life will feel when their home is maintained and organized. This will allow for them to easily find their things by themselves and any sicknesses that come from bacteria or dust will be prevented. You obviously don’t have to do this super often, but on Grandparents Day and maybe once in a while following that, it’s a good thing to consider doing to make a huge difference. 

Cook or take them out for a meal. Aside from this being a basic means of spending quality time with someone, this is merely a sweet way to take care of your grandparent. Eating may not come easily to them all the time, but the gesture is at least one that universally expresses great amounts of love and care. The best way to anyone’s heart is through their stomach, after all!

Be present. This is abstract, but in essence just means to show up for them. Even if you don’t do much other than talk or watch TV, taking time to visit your grandparents is the simplest and most meaningful thing you can do. Loneliness is one of the main epidemics of getting older and you can easily remedy that. It costs no money, yet many find it to be the greatest gift. 

Naturally, you know the grandparents in your life the best, so do what you think is best for them on their day. We hope to continue celebrating everyone who is a grandparent in every way – not only on September 8th, but every day of the year!

Article written by: Ryshel Constantino

Images from Unsplash.com Contributors:

Justin Cron, Christian Bonen, Liuba Bilyk, Volodymyr Hryshchenko, Alyson McPhee, & Nathan Anderson