Today, my grandfather Ivan would have been 101. More than 15 years have passed since he died, but his family still spends this day reaching out to one another and remembering him.

It’s been so long, why do we still get together in the familial circles available to us in our current cities all over the globe? Why do we still cook the meals that he cooked (superior to anything we could possibly put together)? Why do we pass along anecdotes containing his warmth, his kindness, and his generosity to our children, many of whom were born more than a decade after his passing? Why is it that we still care?

Maybe it’s so that we don’t forget a person so dear to our hearts. Maybe it’s because it brings us a twinge of pain that our children, his great-grandchildren, will never be able to be in the presence of his strength and valour, his encompassing warmth and kindness. Or maybe we hope that through these stories, we are passing onto our children little pieces of a person who we wish was still physically with us. Perhaps through these miniscule remembrances, we bestow upon our children things which Dedushka Vania cannot pass on himself. And more than anything, we hope that some of his greatest attributes will make their way into our children’s personalities.

This is the reason that I say, “Wash your hands like Dedushka Vania” to my children – they know that it means that whatever you are doing, you should do thoroughly, carefully, wholeheartedly. It’s the reason that I remind myself a frequent comment about always heating food on a low flame – “На самом маленьком огне,” because our incessant hurry has a tendency to jeopardize the outcome of whatever we are doing, be it food or life. It’s the reason that I try not to waste things – how can you frivolously waste anything, knowing that your grandparents lived through a World War, blockades, the Great Depression?

But why do we remember these things? Why is it really even important? Because, apart from preserving the memory of someone dear (which in itself is reason enough), it would be remiss to throw away life lessons handed down to us from previous generations. Why would we not transfer this wisdom and memories of those dearly departed to our descendants?

Let us always remember. Let the stories of the ancestors who have come before us continue to live in our children and grandchildren.