Why?

   Back during the great depression, my grandmother used to have people show up at her back door asking for food or work. Grandma did her best to help these people out, but sometimes there just wasn’t enough food to go around. One day, a very nice old gentleman showed up at her door with a handcrafted wall clock with a wooden pendulum. He gave this present to my Grandma, as a thanks for helping to feed him and his family while he had no work. My Grandma, asked him what was she to do with such a beautiful clock. The nice old man just smiled and told her to make it a part of her life.

   Well Grandma had Grandpa mount it on the den wall, where it proudly hung for many years. During World War II, the family use to tell tales of how she would sit and stare at it while Grandpa was off to war. When Grandpa returned from the war, the clock watched my father and his sister be born, and the tapping from the pendulum even helped them go to sleep. This unexpected clock had become part of Grandma’s family, just as the old man had told her.

   Many years later after Grandma and Grandpa had passed away, my father took the clock from their home and moved it into our home, where I was just a small boy. My sister and I marveled at the old clock, and used to tell our friends it was ancient. I can’t tell you how many New Year’s Eve’s we all counted down the old year and welcomed in the New Year, on Grandma’s Old Wooden Clock. Whether it was being late for school, or a date, I can’t tell you how many times that old clock was a part of my life!

   Mom and Dad are gone now, and after they passed away, I took down Grandma’s old clock, and brought it to my house and hung it on the wall in my den. My wife and I just brought our new baby home from the hospital a few weeks ago. It was a magic moment to watch him stare at the pendulum on Grandma’s clock as he went to sleep in my arms last night. I sat there with a smile on my face and realized that Grandma’s clock was not only a part of her life, but a part of her whole family’s life. What a wonderful gift this had truly been. It shared the generations of my family. As I sat there and stared at my new baby and Grandma’s clock, I wondered how many more generations this fantastic old clock would touch.