My wife’s brother’s wife’s sister’s daughter had her first child the other day. Yeah, I know, it’s not exactly a close relation, in-laws of in-laws, I’ve never had a chance to even meet them. Still, there is a certain implication in this new arrival.
To that new baby, I happen to be – a remote and far from direct – but a GRANDFATHER!?!?!?!?
The thought helps me none in overcoming my age hangups.
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Sorry, you have to be of Russian-speaking background to fully comprehend the situation. While English-language cultures label the relationship such as I have to the new baby as something like “Great Uncle” or maybe “cousin once removed”, in Russian, a family member two generations older might be called “an Uncle” or “an Aunt” for simplicity, but would in fact be a “grandparent” with an “x times removed” modifier depending on their relation to the direct grandparents.