An Australian Woman Just Met Her 50th Grandchild
Welcome to the family!
getty 72-year-old Australian resident Marie Clark just met her 50th grandchild, Louis.
Clark's parents had fourteen children, and she had fifteen children. Therein lies the reason she has fifty grandchildren, who span from the ages of two weeks old to twenty-four years old.
"To have 50 grandchildren I'm just so lucky, very blessed," Clark told The Courier.
Clark's husband died in 1991, just before the first birthday of their youngest daughter. So, she had children from the age of less than one to twenty-one years old to raise by herself.
Clark told The Courier about meeting the newest addition to the family, "You never forget the first time you hold each grandchild. Every one is special. You look at this precious new life and can't quite believe it."
For her, each grandchild holds a special place in her heart and she has enough love to give them all.
She even keeps a great calendar of birthdays so she never forgets birthdays.
"I've got a really good calendar and have to look at it pretty often otherwise I would forget — that's just the way things are at my age," she told The Courier, revealing how much she cares about every person in her family. She pays attention to details and makes sure she remembers everything.
Clark also said, "I grew up in a wonderful family with both mum and dad. Some kids don't even get one family so I count myself pretty blessed to have had the family I have," she said.
Even for her own children, some grew up with only her, no father. So, she is very lucky to have had both of the parents in her life and her older children were lucky to have their father for as long as they did.
And now, since her children are older, she says they are spoiling her now with all the grandbabies.
Her children and grandchildren mean so much to her. She is always amazed at how much her grandchildren have grown. She loves it when there is a new baby because she gets to hold them.
Clark said, "They grow up so quickly. They are only a little baby in arms for a short time then they grow up and are running around... but you never, never get sick of holding a little baby in your arms and just looking at them.
Almost all of her children live in the same town as she does.
She said, "If the grandkids go past and see another car here at home, they've got to come in and see their cousins. Half the time I think it's more about the cousins than me."
So, she loves that her family can come and go as they wish because she is right there in the middle of them all.
She even said, "But there's always someone dropping in and a couple of times I've had one family living with me for a few months while they built a house."
Clark's door is always open to her family, any time, day or night.
When some of her older grandsons come by, she said, "They are all so different in their own way and even the big boys, my big grandsons always come in and give me a hug. I never get tired of that and they never get too big for that."
She never tires of having her family over to her house and she is a great grandmother to lean on for hugs and support.
Even though she is young, Clark doesn't think she will have many more grandchildren, because fifty is a lot.
But if they come, she says she will welcome them with open arms.
Now, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, she has had to keep her family at a distance for her health, which has been very hard for her to do.
Clark is comping at the bit to open her doors and let her family come and go as they please like they used to.
She is doing what she needs to do right now, and then when she is able to, she will open her arms and love having her home filled to the brim with her whole family again.
Emily Francos is a writer who covers astrology, pop culture, and relationship topics.