GRAND Magazine - September/October 2008 - (Page 11)

2008 GRANDparent of the Year GRAND magazine proudly presents the 2008 GRANDparent of the Year and the top nine runners-up Winners all E very year, choosing the winner and the top 20 among thousands of entries becomes more and more difficult: The stories written by the nominators are as varied, compelling and individualistic as the nominees themselves. We received nominations from every U.S. state and from five other countries; the grands were nominated by husbands and wives, daughters and daughtersin-law, grandchildren and friends. Here, we present the story of Selia Ricardez, a radiologic technologist from Whittier, California, our 2008 GRANDparent of the Year, and descriptions, from the nominators, of the top nine finalists. The stories of the 10 semifinalists can be found on our Web site, www.GRANDmagazine.com. In choosing our winners, we read compassionate stories of grands who are raising their grandchildren, grands who are active in their grandchildren’s lives despite disabilities, grands who moved away from comfortable lives in order to live closer to their grandchildren, grands who juggle work and family, grands who are teachers of life, spiritual guides, role models, advocates for the rights of others, peacemakers and adventurers. The stories reminded us all of what a privilege it is to work with a readership whose commonality is love. And we thank you. SELIA RICARDEZ, a radiologic technologist from whittier, cA GRANDparent of the Year Award A Photo bY MeliNDA bäuMle A Selia and her husband, Rodrigo, are grandparents to siblings zoe, 3; Nic, 7; timothy, 9 months; and Nathan, 8. get up and get myself ready,” she says, “and then, at 5:45 I make school lunches. At 6 I make their breakfast, and by 6:20 they have to be at the table, eating.” “They” are three of Selia’s four grandchildren: Nathan, 8; Nicolas, 7; and Zoe, 3. The youngest, Timothy, 9 months, spends weeknights at the house of his parents, Yvette and Hokok Ngann. Selia continues, “They brush their teeth, and dress. My husband, Rodrigo—he’s a supervising radiologic technologist in Los Angeles—leaves early for work, so he drops Zoe off at her other grandmother’s house. That’s where baby Timothy spends the day, so Zoe sees her older brothers at night and Timothy during the day. I take Nathan and Nic to school, and go to work”—Selia is a radiologic technologist for Kaiser Permanente Hospital in La Palma, about 25 minutes from the Ricardez home in Whittier. The children’s mother, Yvette, is a registered nurse; their father, Hokok, is a lineman for Southern California Edison. The Nganns (Hokok’s mother is Chinese; his father is Cambodian) live six miles from Whittier in Montebello. “Sometimes on the weekends, the whole family rides to our house on their bikes,” Selia says. “They have those little side carts that attach for Zoe and Timothy, and the boys have their own bikes. There’s a really nice pathway in Whittier that goes from Norwalk to Colima, and then they can take the regular bike routes. It’s a nice ride.” With four of the six adults in the children’s lives working SEPTEMBER OCTOBER 2008 GRAND 11 N AveRAGe weekDAY foR SeliA RicARDez begins at 5 a.m. “I http://www.GRANDmagazine.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of GRAND Magazine - September/October 2008

Grand Magazine- September/October 2008
Grand View:�Priceless
Contents
Isn't it Grand?: Picture Perfect
Winners!: GRANDparent of the Year
Grand Central
Toddler Town:�Grand-proofing
Ask Grand:�Two Tired
Tips on Teens: The Bar Mitzvah Trips
Just So We Know:�BPA Not Our BFF
Full House-Full Heart-Full Time:�Confessions of a Backyard Grand
Grandbloggers: It Takes a Village
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?
Family Food = Fun
On the Cover: Nora Roberts A Fine Romance
Everything Was Fine Until You Showed Up
Happy Big Sister Day
Looking Grand:�Elementary, My Dear
All in the Family:�Pasta, Present and Future
Reunions:�Doubleheader
Inspirations:�Grandpa's Violin
Grand Bazaar
More to the Story
Grand Finale:�Long Ago Under the Sun

GRAND Magazine - September/October 2008