MY parents often joked that old age didn't come alone, usually after creaking limbs warned them to expect rain (which duly arrived).

Betty and Jimmy were married for 65 years and believed that if you were very lucky, ageing included the priceless compensation of grandchildren.

They were blessed (or so they told us) with daughters Christine and May and yours truly the baby.

We gave them seven grandchildren.

Were they alive today they would dote over seven great-grandchildren.

Nancy and me are far from that time when Michael Parkinson sends you a free life insurance calendar, one month at a time, but we're 40 years married next month and we've been incredibly lucky.

Our daughter-in-law Ashley has presented our Thomas with their first child.

Nathan Flynn Stirling is 60-days-old today, our first grandchild and cherished bearer of the name for the generation after Thomas and his brother John.

So what does that addition of "grand" confer on parents?

My well-thumbed Chambers Dictionary defines it as: "magnificent; exalted; dignified; sublime".

Ashley's folks, Bernie and John Scullion, also first-time grands, will agree it's all that, and more.

You think nothing can ever top the arrival of your own children, until this special delivery.

It's a mixture of emotions - pleasure, gratitude, even anxiety, but mostly pride and no little wonder at this tiny 6lb 2oz bundle, and our own place in the endless circle of life.

The grandparent-grandchild bond is said to be second only to that between parent and child, and it's easy to see why. It has rekindled memories of our own adventures as young parents, and even as grandkids.

I lost two grandparents when I was very young, but I was very close to Granny Dickson and Grandpa Stirling, whose name I proudly carry.

Private David Bett Stirling was wounded fighting with the Seaforth Highlanders in World War One and thereafter walked with a stick, but he was among the lucky ones.

Like Granny Dickson he lived to see 88 and despite the war ending a promising football career, I can still see his name on the honours board at Partick Bowling Club as a past champion.

I have his 1916 Great War honourable discharge scroll and walking stick, along with the initialled gold pocket watch, chain and winner's medal he received for scoring a hat-trick for Vale of Leven against Brechin in the 1908 Scottish Qualifying Cup Final. Mementoes for Thomas to hand down to Nathan.

Grandkids offer us as much as we offer them. There is the anticipation of watching Nathan growing up, starting school, rejoicing in his accomplishments.

We can enjoy the delights of parenting without the 24/7 commitment, and we can hand him back.

He is even meant to bring us health benefits, mental and physical, and he should certainly help us sleep at night (unlike his parents).

Nothing will ever be the same — I'm in bed with a granny, for goodness sake — and our spare bedroom (don't tell George Osborne) is now a nursery, stocked with all manner of supposedly essential gadgets.

The likes of Silverburn holds a new attraction for me.

Pushing Nathan's pram, or better still carrying him, I'm unashamedly displaying my patriarchal pride, and I see plenty more grandpas doing likewise.

As the elders, grandparents should be the mentors, the role models, the family historians, the source of those embarrassing tales and pictures of the new parents when they were growing up.

And if they don't know it already, parenthood should confirm all the effort and sacrifices made for them. And they're still being made.

There are more than 14 million grandparents in the UK and more than 80% provide hands-on care for their grandchildren.

More than 60% of working mums rely on parents for childcare, which saves the UK economy £4bn-a-year, and the rest.

There is a deplorable lack of respect and neglect of our elders — and I don't just mean within NHS care — but after years of toil they're still paying their way.

Of course, not every grandparent wants that hands-on commitment. Some are understandably nervous about caring for a baby after all these years; others feel they've already done their bit raising their own kids, which may be one reason why so many Glasgow grandparents beat a strategic retreat to Largs!

Grandparents can be a contentious issue, just ask Aiden McGeady (and, by the by, every boy is free to choose his own path, so get off his case), but spare a thought for more than one million UK grans and grandpas denied access to their grandchildren for one reason or another.

Almost 9500 couples divorced in Scotland last year and family charities say almost half of grandparents, usually on the dad's side, will lose all contact with their grandkids.

For some, sadly, old age does come alone.