An ode to the senior generation

I just read a post over at Hip Hop Grandmom's and I so wanted to write off a post immediately.
I have interacted closely with "old" people, who were my family members mainly. I guess I was lucky because many were very strong mentally and very 'all there'. I just want to share a few lines about each of them.
There was my maternal grandfather, (my paternal grandfather died before I was born). He died at the age of 97. He was such an interesting personality. He had been an engineer and a planter. He retired from service maybe when he was 60. His wife died maybe a few years later. so he was a widower for around 30 years. But he was such fun to talk to for all us grandchildren, always interested in the world around him and a very tolerant man. Even now I remember him so often and feel it was such a pity my children couldn't get to know him--he died 27 years ago when they were still small.
Then there was my paternal grandmother. What a woman! She too became a widow quite early. Besides she had to see the death of 3 of her children. Her elder daughter died when she was 38, leaving behind 7 children and my grandmother brought up the two youngest, 2 little girls 18 months and 6 months old then. Later, she came to stay with us very reluctantly, when it was impossible to manage on her own. She too was interested in the world around her. I remember her avidly reading the Reader's Digest, an occasional Time magazine and the newspaper and wanting us to show her in the Atlas where each new place she read about was located and this almost upto the time she died at 90.
Then I have to add my mother. She is now 89. My father died in May this year and she keeps going as best as she can. She is busy doing sudoko, or playing chess on the computer and has recently taken to blogging. Her spirit just thrills my heart.
Well there are too many I see, when it comes to remembering. But I just want to tell anyone who reads this, that it's in the eyes. Look at the eyes of an old person. They always reveal the person's inner mind, even when they seem helpless and can't seem to remember which day of the week it is. I hate to see and old person treated like a small baby. It's true that their body controls may have become like that, but inside their minds they are not like that as the poem at Hip Hop Grandmom's said. The next time you see an old lady--or old man--being treated like a recalcitrant child, just look into their eyes.
Bless you all these older people that I did not even mention who have obviously added to my life in more ways than even I thought.