SADLY, in this day and age, it is only too common for marriages to break up. It is doubly sad when there are children involved.

But while the estranged parent of children in a break-up usually has legal rights of access, grandparents don’t, and this can be a cause of great distress to the older generation, who had hoped to see their grandchildren grow and flourish. Divorce is not the only cause of grandparents not being able to enjoy their grandchildren.

Sometimes their children have simply moved a long way away, or even abroad. Sometimes the parents and grandparents have fallen out over, say, their child’s choice of partner or some other family feud. Sometimes the rift is not total, but badly managed - for instance, when it has been agreed grandparents will have access for a much-anticipated visit once a month, then at the last minute it is cancelled for some apparently trivial reason.

At any rate, while the world recognises the distress of a parent separated from her/his child, there is less understanding about how a grandparent suffers, particularly the widowed for whom the younger branch of the family is a lifeline. However there is some help at hand: an organisation called Grandparents Apart Self Help (GASH) is a support group that is there to listen and help for those times when it all gets too much.

The nearest branch of GASH is currently in Edinburgh, but they have been receiving so many calls from the Inverness area that they are seeking to set up a branch her locally. A local woman, who understands the problems of being a “grandmother apart” from personal experience, has agreed to collect the names of those interested. She told News & Views, “I know it can be very hard, but it can help to talk to others who understand. If you have lost contact with your grandchildren and would like to meet others in the same position, ring me on Inverness 243551.”