the cycle of generations

I believe I have entered a new stage in life. It feels slightly odd and has me mildly contemplative this week.

Over the years my friends (and I) would have grandparents die. Though painful, it was acceptable. This week, however, a friend lost his mother. He is not much older than my husband and I, and we are pretty close to him, his wife and kids. I knew his mother, albeit not well.

A new generation has moved into place.

I have seen this coming, and felt it intimately over the past few years as my parents lost several friends, people I held dear. But, somehow, to have my peer lose a parent has put a new perspective on it. My own parents are now nearing 60...and suddenly they are showing their age in ways I would not have fathomed. I find they need a bit more caring for than in years past, which I am willing to give...but as my mother pointed out, it is much harder to become the needy parent than to be the giving child. She has now played both roles. And I am stepping into new shoes, that of the giver.