It's Grandparents Day on Saturday and looking forward to celebrating are Bradford grandparents Bob and Kathleen Gynn. They are just devoted to their three grandchildren, but as Bob tells reporter Heather Bishop, the news that he was joining the ranks of our favourite grandads and grandmas at the tender age of 41 initially hit him like a bombshell.

FATHER-OF-THREE Bob Gynn was gobsmacked when he found out that he was about to become a grandfather for the first time at the sprightly age of 41.

But after the initial shock wore off, he said it was one of the best things to ever happen to him and his wife Kathleen, who live in Buttershaw, Bradford.

And Grandparents Day, on Saturday, will be especially poignant for the couple this year as their three grandchildren have just moved to Peterborough with their eldest daughter Sharon, 28, and her husband Michael.

Bob, now 50, a full-time worker at Buttershaw Family Centre, said his relationship with nine-year-old Joseph, Amy, seven, and five-year-old Emily, was a very special one.

"When I first heard I was going to be a grandfather for the first time, I couldn't believe it," he said. "I was shocked really because I didn't feel old enough.

"But once I got used to the idea I started to look forward to it and as soon as I saw Joseph for the first time I just forgot all about my own anxieties.

"In a way you enjoy your grandchildren even more than your own children.

"Most of the time you see them at their best. You can play with them and spend time with them but when you get tired or they start to get upset, you can hand them back to their mum and dad at the end of the day.

"It is a special bond between grandparents and their grandchildren although one of the hardest things is trying not to interfere.

"You see your own children do things that you don't agree with their children but you can't say anything.

"You have to let them make their own mistakes like we did with them and that can be quite difficult.

"It makes you understand your own parents a bit more and the decisions they made.

"But my daughter is a good mother and the kids adore her.

"Now they've moved we really miss having them around as they used to live at the bottom of our road.

"We'd look after them and take them places but we haven't seen them for a couple of months now although we do speak to them every day on the phone."

Bob, of Gracey Lane, added: "My wife Kathleen misses them terribly as well.

"As soon as our grandchildren were born it was like her maternal instinct came out all over again.

"It seems a shame that there has to be a special day to thank grandparents for what they do. They should be appreciated all year round."

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