An older adult male wearing a light gray, vertically striped collared shirt in an indoor setting with teapots and decorative items. 3:19
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Raising a grandson from diapers in his 70s

John was in his 70s, a widower who lived for his company, when a baby grandson became his to raise. more

It was not the plan. John says he knew from the day the boy was born that the two of them would be close. He thought the boy's mother would turn her life around and move in with him. "I had a big home, plenty of room," he says, but she was young, the old life kept calling, and she drifted off.

"I was all company oriented," John says, "and suddenly I found that there's another life out there, and that is this little baby." The baby came with diapers, something he "hadn't been used to."

Not everyone liked the idea. The ministry, as he calls the child services office, wasn't keen on him having the boy, and he found out later it was because of his age. John is fair about it. Some of the people there are great, he says, and some he doesn't think a terrible lot of, and much depends on their training and on "the big word, compassion."

Today John is in his mid 80s, and the boy will soon turn 13. "I'd like to make it till he reaches 18," John says. At 18, the boy can look after his own money, and no one can come and take him out of the home they share.

He knows how the next part sounds, and he says it anyway. He would make a deal with the devil if it meant getting the boy to 18. "The devil can have me the next day."

An older adult male wearing a light gray, vertically striped collared shirt in an indoor setting with teapots and decorative items. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
John was in his 70s, a widower who lived for his company, when a baby grandson became his to raise.

On the boy himself, John has nothing but praise. He is "really, really, really funny, really nice," John says, "and he's the best cook I've ever known." Then he adds, "Well, we don't have to live near a hospital, that's for sure."