Bucks Writs - Fall 2020 - 18

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Legacy
By Dianne C. Magee

I have two confessions to make.
One, I am officially old. I became a grandmother to a
perfect baby girl on September 11! And so far, being a
grandparent is incredibly easy and nothing like parenting
at all. I'm sleeping through the night, I'm not breastfeeding, I'm not changing diapers, and my clothes
are staying relatively clean. The painful reason for my
unencumbered lifestyle, though, is that I can't have any
physical contact with Isabel because she's stuck in the
Dominican Republic, about 1500 miles from Bucks County.
The U.S. State Department has conspired to keep us apart.
Her mother's visa application has been pending for some
seven months now. Although Isabel is a United States
citizen, it seems that since she won't be able to run for
President in the future, her presence in this country is not
considered urgent. And, because I'm officially old, it's not
safe for me to visit her in a place which our government
deems to be at a Level 4 on the coronavirus scale. Hence,
my grandmaternal urges must be satisfied by glimpses of
the cutest baby ever on FaceTime, at times when she's
almost always sleeping. I just hope that she arrives here
before she's walking and while I still am.

While my skills as a grandparent have
yet to be tested, I have officially failed
as a parent. My son, Isabel's father,
enrolled in (screams of terror) LAW
SCHOOL in August! Having been on the
inside of this profession for decades (I
am officially old) and, therefore, knowing
it, warts and all, perhaps mistakenly, I'd
always wanted something better for my
children and had actively discouraged
them from venturing into the law.

Two, while my skills as a grandparent have yet to be
tested, I have officially failed as a parent. My son, Isabel's
father, enrolled in (screams of terror) LAW SCHOOL in
August! Having been on the inside of this profession
for decades (I am officially old) and, therefore, knowing
it, warts and all, perhaps mistakenly, I'd always wanted
something better for my children and had actively
discouraged them from venturing into the law. My
sentiments were analogous to those of Willie Nelson and
Waylon Jennings in " Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow
up To Be Cowboys, " just in reverse. While the cowboys
recommend to " (l)et 'em be doctors and lawyers and
such, " I think I'd be happy if my son had decided to go
home on the range, rather than to Civil Procedure class.

mine, especially since he's taking all of his classes virtually.
Imagine that! There's no seating chart, no trembling in
fear that your name will be called to answer questions
about the one case you forgot to brief. The Socratic
method is alive and well, but in a kinder and gentler
sense. Eliminating the element of scary surprise, a small
group of students in each class is picked in advance to
be prepared to discuss certain topics and cases on certain
days. Wouldn't that have been great? I could probably
have avoided my hypertension medication (even at my
now advanced age) if my law school professors had been
so kind and accommodating. The students seem more
interested in collaboration, too, and work on projects
together. I remember the days of rushing to the library

Anyway, as an officially old person, what do I know? So
far, Kevin seems to be enjoying his first few months as a
1L and is thriving on racking up stress points as a new,
sleep-deprived parent and bleary-eyed student. I must
say that his law school experience is very different than
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Bucks Writs - Fall 2020

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