She is a Grandma, they explained to me in a very firm voice, showing their appreciation for a family title that should be more recognized. After all, a grandma is a mom two times. A double mom, with experience, time and warm memories.

To those who enjoyed the presence of our grandparents, we know that there are no better secret keepers, and partners in pranks on our parents. They are their kids, you know, and they never dare to punish their own parents. And it is a rule of love that all grandparents are capable to take the blame for any grandkid.

Today's grandpas are modern. They blog, they chat, they go on cruises. The baby boomers are grandparents, but if you are counting the BB generation as the ones born between 1946 and 1964, as the U.S. Census does, then you should put on the list Michael J. Fox, Jerry Seinfeld, Paula Abdul, Antonio Banderas and Meg Ryan, just to name some famous BB here. Not my idea of grandpa, even when the age is right.

Besides the baby boomers, who everybody loves, from travel agencies to home developments, and of course Hollywood; there are older grandparents, who sometimes don't get the attention that they deserve unless it is Father's, Mother's or Veterans Day.

Those are the BB parents, and I am sure they have a ton of memories to share, and great stories to pass along, but are not always a strong voice in the community. On the TV there are no ordinary older grandparents. The grandma in "George Lopez" is really mean, and I cannot think of another old character, besides the grandpa from "The Simpsons." We don't see "regular old people" on TV, and we don't see them in the mass media. But they are on the streets, in the parks, at the library, at family reunions and, you will be surprised, at all the parties they have in the seniors' homes. Because grandparents are always fun, they have seen anything, and they have experienced the best and the worst from our society.

In the Internet era, they are the guardians of our families' memories, they know our roots, and they've lived the experiences that make us who we are today.

So, go hug an older grandparent today, and while you're at it, ask for some stories; you will have the time of your life.Hopefully, we all are going to be grandparents one day, and society will have a different degree of respect to us. Because as a society we need the youngest, and also the oldest, even when we sometimes focus too much on the newest generations.

I always remember the Joan Manuel Serrat song, "To Be Old," which predicts that everything will be different the day that "all of us realize that we all carry an old person over our shoulders." Be very aware of your shoulders, they carry your future. And — thank for the memories, Mom.