I love learning about near-death experiences. Not all NDE (Near Death Experience) interviews resonate as true, but many do. For me, these are interesting because for me, life has always felt like being in an airport. We know we are going somewhere else. Not that the airport can’t be interesting, educational, or delightful, but it’s temporary. Planes are coming and going all the time. Each of us holds an invisible ticket. Our particular plane will one day whisk us back to our true home.
In many NDE interviews, people recall encountering loved ones who have already passed through the veil. These loved ones are very often grandparents. Of course! If you are a grandparent right now, you know that you will love your grandchildren forever. You will always want the very best, happiest lives for them, forever.
But grandparents, you are also potential keys to helping your grandchildren have their happiest possible lives-right now.
The love between grandparents and grandchildren is boundless. Transformative. It’s an amazing love. It doesn’t ask for anything. It just is. And sometimes, without even meaning to, children pull that pure love to the surface. You see it in their eyes, hear it in their voice, and suddenly, everything is sweeter. Grandparents have a way of offering wisdom and a depth of affection that is unmatched. It’s a love that lasts forever.
Recently, a five-year-old grandson expressed a wish that someday, when he had to die, that it would be on the same day that his grandfather died. “I don’t want to be without you,” he told my husband.
Grandparents have an unspoken mission, one that’s quietly monumental. Grandmothers (or “Nana’s”, as many grandmothers are called) are Kind of like Lady Liberty, on their nurturing missions. “Give me your tired babies, your hungry toddlers, your huddled middle-schoolers, yearning for hugs and listening ears…send them all to Nana, where love, wisdom, and nourishment await.”
From the beginning of time, every family, except for Adam and Eve’s, has had grandparents. Can you imagine life without Nana in the Garden of Eden? Who babysat during date night? Who made Sunday dinners? Who offered unconditional grandparent love, peace, and support through every messy stage of life?
How fascinating is it to be a grandparent at this specific time in history? Our values are so desperately needed in today’s world. There are more of us than ever now. And in general, the Lord has allowed us to live longer than ever before in recent history.
Currently, boomers are “booming.” One out of every five people is now over sixty-five.1 Every twenty minutes, boom! A boomer becomes a grandparent.2
In 1900, the average life expectancy of a newborn was 32 years. By 2021, this had more than doubled to 71 years. According to Jonathan Vespa, a demographer with the U.S. Census Bureau, “The aging of baby boomers means that within just a couple of decades, older people are projected to outnumber children for the first time in U.S. history.”
Coincidence? I don’t think so either.
Martin Luther King Jr. said, “We shall overcome.” In population vernacular, boomers could say, “We shall overwhelm.” We need the citation information for this quote. FYI:
Remember that moment in You’ve Got Mail when Meg Ryan tells Tom Hanks, “I always wanted it to be you”? In these polarized times, where peacekeeping within families is more important than ever, maybe the world today has always wanted it to be grandparents.
Imagine, for a moment, the following: Two cars are cruising on intersecting freeways through the landscape of current history.
The first is a vintage Camaro. The passengers are a bunch of lighthearted baby boomer grandparents. The radio plays “September” by Earth, Wind & Fire. The car is filled with laughter and conversation. There are exchanges of funny stories, challenges, and, of course, photos of grandchildren.
The second vehicle is a sleek Audi, packed with grandchildren, including a teenage driver at the wheel. The passengers radiate fresh energy and limitless possibilities. And yet, there’s underlying tension. Anxiety and depression are riding shotgun. Shadows are fighting to eclipse the bright promise of today’s youth. The song on the Audi car radio is Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?” The answer is, “I’m not sure.”
A 2023 study revealed that 42% of high school-aged children felt hopeless or persistently sad; almost 30% reported poor mental health, and 10% had attempted suicide.3
Current studies indicate that Gen Z is “the loneliest generation the world has seen.”4 According to Forbes, “73% of Gen-Z report feeling alone sometimes or always. Loneliness can be as damaging to health as smoking 15 cigarettes per day. People who experience social isolation have a 32% higher risk of early death.”5
At last, both cars pull up to an intersection called…”Relief.”
Engines rumble to a stop. All passengers exit their vehicles. Grandchildren and grandparents face and stare at one another for a moment, unsure.
Something passes between them, a recognition. They exhale a deep, shared breath. They are what they have been waiting for.
Without a word, they wrap each other up in an embrace.
They know…they are exactly what they’ve always needed.
Notes
1 United States Census Bureau, “Older People Projected to Outnumber Children for the First Time in US History,” March 13, 2018, https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press releases/2018/cb18-41-population-projections.html#:~:text=By%202030%2C%20 all%20b
2 Georgia Witikin, The Modern Grandparent’s Handbook: The Ultimate Guide to the New Rules of Grandparenting (Jan. 3, 2012).
3 Talkspace, “Why Mental Health Days are Important for Students”, https://business. talkspace.com/articles/mental-health-days-for-students#:~:text=Research%20 con ducted%20in%202021%20by,29%25%20 reported%20pour%20 mental%20health.
4 Abby Bowler, “Isolation Among Generation Z in the United States,” Ballard Brief, accessed March 9, 2025, https://ballardbrief.byu.edu/issue-briefs/isolation
5 Kian Bakhtiari, “Gen Z, the Loneliness Epidemic, and the Unifying Power of Brands,” Forbes, July 28, 2023, https://www.forbes.com/sites/kianbakhtiari/2023/07/28/ gen-z-the-loneliness-epidemic-and-the-unifying-power-of-brands/.
MaryJo Bell is the author of the new book on grandmothering, Welcome to Nanahood, and the bestselling books, I Can Feel it in My Heart (designed to help children know what to do should they run into inappropriate media, including pornography) and The Pursuit of Happi-Nest, a book that celebrates raising families with Latter-Day Saint values.
