Super grandparents Maria and Keith

Sent in by Oliver’s mum, Jessica.

Many families enjoy the support of a grandparent or several grandparents, and our family is no exception. Oliver and his siblings have several grandparents and great-grandparents who enjoy spending time with the children.

When Oliver was diagnosed deaf, it was my mum, Oliver’s Nanny (Maria) who contacted the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) to find out how we could support Oliver. She also found out how she could support the family as well, which was wonderful.

My mum came with me to all the NDCS events for parents new to hearing loss and the ones on financial help. She’s a great help to the family, looking after Oliver and his siblings when I’m working. She even looks after our dog, which she calls their grand-dog!

Oliver’s grandad Keith learnt sign language and has been busy teaching Oliver some simple signs. Oliver went into school showing everyone his signs and enjoyed teaching his friends. Oliver was supported by his dad, Dan, and his grandad Keith when he did the sponsored ride, raising over £1,000 for the NDCS.

The children are very fortunate to have loving grandparents who mean the world to them. They have regular sleepovers at their grandparents' home, or Maria and Keith take them away for the weekend to the caravan in the summer where the children can have outside fun, camping, bike riding, going to the beach and playing in the park. My mum is always prepared with Oliver’s overnight bag which includes his hearing aid batteries, night light, favourite teddy and his iPad, which is great as the Bluetooth goes straight into his hearing aids and blocks out background noise.

We and the grandchildren are extremely grateful for everything they do and thanked Nanny and Grandad this Grandparents' Day with a cake, a smile and a big hug (and a bottle of wine…)