JONI: This coming Sunday is National Grandparents’ Day and although she is no longer with us, I have to brag on my dear mother-in-law, Kyoko Tada. My husband’s mother was in her mid-80s when she passed away, but up until she went home to heaven, she made the best of those remaining years God gave her. Right, Ken?
KEN: She sure did.
JONI: Describe your mom to our friends listening.
KEN: She was a very petite woman and after my father died she seemed to gain strength from her faith in Christ.
JONI: Not only that, but she seemed to gain interest in doing new things.
KEN: Yeah, I was surprised.
JONI: She joined the local Senior Citizens Center.
KEN: One day I went over there and she had a video tape on the television exercising with the tape.
JONI: I’m so glad she took the plunge because she also learned out to line dance.
KEN: She learned how to line dance and she volunteered over at the Hollywood Bowl. Did you know that? At the gift shop.
JONI: I think that was the most amazing thing. She used to be able to get us discount tickets to the Hollywood Bowl. How cool! And nifty little gifts from the gift shop and the Hollywood Bowl. She also took up knitting.
KEN: She did. She told me once that she was doing it for the older people. Now these older people were only about 3 or 4 years older than she was but they were cancer patients so she knitted some scarves and hats.
JONI: And afghans for people at the local senior citizens’ center – for all the older people. When she reached her 80s my mother-in-law also got more involved at her Japanese-American church. She joined a Bible study.
KEN: And she actually had a friend of hers, who was Buddhist, come to the church.
JONI: I remember that. I thought that was so funny! This Buddhist friend of hers—that’s the religion of most Japanese people—she came with Mom Tada to church and the woman liked it so much that she told Mom Tada, one day after Sunday service, “You know, I like your religion much more than mine.” I thought that was funny. I think she was on the right track.
KEN: She came to Christ.
JONI: She did?! Wow! I did not realize that. Well, also, being in her mid-80s Mom Tada was a great-grandmom to Cody and Kyle, her two grandsons. And to this day those boys really understand their Japanese heritage. They used to call Mom Tada Grandma Koko.
KEN: And you know, Joni, I don’t think you know this, my mom wrote a letter to them to have when they grow up.
JONI: What did it say?
KEN: It just talked about her heritage and some of the history behind who she was and where she came from.
JONI: She experienced internment during World War II, in a Japanese internment camp in Central California. And kept up her smile through that whole thing and came out of it still a good American citizen, bless her heart! Anyway! All this to say, Ken, I know we have lots of friends listening who are in their 80s and it does not have to be the end of the world, at least for some 80-year-olds who still have their health. So this weekend on National Grandparents’ Day, take a moment to call your grandparents… or an elderly neighbor… or someone in your church who’s in their 80s.After all, Proverbs 16:31 reminds us that “Gray hair is a crown of splendor…” I love that. I’ve got a few gray hairs. You know what, just talking about Mom Tada today has reminded me that as we grow older it doesn’t have to be the end of all things—for some, like for Mom Tada, it is the beginning of many things.
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