One of the things that makes me very happy as a mother is to see the relationship between my parents and my daughter. The arrival of grandchildren sometimes makes grandparents try new things and this is precisely the beautiful story that I share today.
Is about a grandfather, who regained his taste for drawing and learned to use Instagram to be closer to his grandchildren and leave them a legacy.
Ji Lee is a Korean-born designer who currently lives in New York and shared on his Facebook profile a video where he tells the story of his dad, whom he defines as a "grumpy old man" of 75 years, who He was retired and lived in Brazil with his daughter's family, Ji Lee's sister.
There, he was responsible for taking his two grandchildren to school every day, until his daughter and her husband made the decision to return to Korea, leaving without much to do in Brazil. The family began to worry that now Grandpa just spent the day watching TV, when Ji Lee remembered that he used to draw when they were children. Then an idea occurred to him: to propose to his dad to redraw and publish his works on Instagram.
His dad didn't like him. I had never heard of Instagram, I had never used email, not even Google. But unlike his father, Ji Lee's mother was very curious and knew how to use social networks, so they created a plan between them: they would convince their father to draw again and she would help him publish his drawings on Instagram.
At first the "grumpy grandfather" did not like the idea, did not understand why they wanted him to publish his drawings. Then, Ji Lee became the father of a baby named Astro and his parents traveled to New York to meet him. Grandpa fell in love with his grandson and one day while they were having dinner together, he wondered aloud what his grandson would be like when he grew up, because he would no longer be there to witness him.
Ji Lee was sad to think that his son would not know his grandfather as much as he wanted, but he had a great idea: to leave them a legacy. Again he proposed to his dad to draw, but now with the goal of doing it for his three grandchildren. And that's how "Drawings for my grandchildren" was born.
Then his dad had a new motivation and started drawing while learning to use Instagram. It was a slow process, but he never gave up. To motivate him even more, he proposed to make an exhibition of his works, sell some of his illustrations and thus be able to pay trips to visit his grandchildren more frequently.
Since then, the grumpy grandfather was reunited with the drawing and began to make a daily illustration motivated by love towards his grandchildren. His drawings include themes and elements of daily life, using different techniques and styles. To make them even more special, Ji Lee's mother began writing stories that accompanied each of her dad's drawings.
Thanks to this nice project his family became more united, because everyone began to collaborate so that the stories in Korean, English and Portuguese could be read on the Instagram account.
Currently The Instagram account has more than 316,000 followers and "the grumpy grandfather" has his own website, where he sells his illustrations. Part of the proceeds are donated to foundations and another part is dedicated to a fund for the university studies of their grandchildren.
This is one of those beautiful stories in which we can see the impact of grandchildren on the lives of grandparents. According to Ji Lee, This is the legacy and inheritance that their parents want to leave to their grandchildren, so that the day they are no longer know how much they loved them and can see and know all those things they wanted to teach them.
