From that most prolific of authors, Unknown, we have this aphorism: “A grandparent is a little bit parent, a little bit teacher, and a little bit best friend.” That amalgam of those three little bits into “grandparent” creates one of the greatest joys life can bestow on us. Being a grandparent is as different from being a parent as pepper from salt. Delight often replaces the worries we felt as parents, and an indulgence we would never have shown our sons and daughters flows like a river to the grandkids. The dad whose mother rarely treated him with candy in his boyhood watches gape-mouthed as she hands his daughter a Hershey’s candy bar. Let’s take a look at these three roles of the grandparent. Parent Many grandparents act in absentia as parents when Mom and Dad are not available for the little ones. One grandmother I know cares for two …