I can't remember an important moment in my life when my grandparents weren't there. There were birthdays, Christmas, family holidays and school performances and they were never missing. 

When I was 7 years old and played the violin in front of an audience for the first time, I saw their faces in the audience. They smiled at me and cheered me on. My grandfather with his big square glasses on his face, his dark, grey short hair and lots of laugh lines on his face. Next to him sat my grandmother. She was always a little taller than him, slim, active and with grey curly hair. When I watched them look at each other, I never doubted for a second whether true love existed. They lived it. They were a team right from the start. 

When I fell off my bike in front of their house when I was 9 and broke my right arm, my grandmother stayed with me in the street and my grandfather got the car to drive me to the hospital. If my grandmother had a problem, my grandfather wouldn't rest for a second until he had found a solution to it. 

As I got older, of course I also experienced the arguments and problems in their everyday life. But they never went to bed at night without resolving them first. 

My sister and I spent so much time with them because our parents had to and wanted to work. The privilege of living in the same village as our grandparents was a big help for my parents. 

Once I climbed up the big apple tree in their garden because I had discovered a bird's nest at the top that I wanted to explore. When I arrived at the top, drenched in sweat, I unfortunately found no more birds in the nest. The chicks had already fledged. Sadly, I wanted to make my way back down and realised how high up I really was. I lost my courage and was afraid of falling down. 

But instead of calling someone for help, I just stayed up there. Nobody was in the garden, so nobody noticed. After 20 minutes in the tree and lots of bugs and spiders paying me a visit, my grandfather came out of the door and called for me. 

"Lily, where are you? Emilia is looking for you."

 At first I didn't dare say anything and tried to hide even more behind the leaves. But I had to go to the toilet and I was thirsty too, so I made myself known. 

"I'm up here" I called down and started waving with one hand. I held on to a big branch with the other. 

"Lily, what are you doing up here? Are you hiding from Emilia? Why don't you come down, she won't want to play doll with you again." he called up and took a step closer to the tree so that he could see me better between the branches.

" There's a bird's nest up here, but there are none left and now I don't dare climb down. I know I could have called for you, but then all the neighbours would have heard..." I said shyly. 

"So you started an adventure and now you don't dare go any further in the middle. That's perfectly all right, Lily. You're allowed to fail sometimes. But you're always allowed to ask for help. No matter how many people hear it or whether no one is there at the time. You're allowed to ask for help and get it, never forget that,"he said in his reassuring voice and slowly moved away from the tree. 

"Where are you going?" I asked him, but he had already disappeared. 

I tried to move on the branch I'was sitting on and put my foot on the lowest branch. I managed that, but then it started to creak menacingly and I quickly pulled my feet up again. I looked into the neighbours' gardens. There didn`t seem to be anyone there. 

So I summoned up all my courage and shouted: "Grandad! Help me! Please help me!". 

Just as I was about to shout again, I heard rustling behind me. I quickly looked round and saw the smiling face of my grandfather standing on a high ladder behind me. 

"I'm here. Now try to turn round slowly on the branch and then you only have to take one step and you'll be with me on the ladder. Can you do that?" he asked me. 

"Yes, I can do it," I answered quickly and turned in his direction. 

I carefully placed my feet on the branch between me and the ladder and shifted my weight onto it. It creaked a little but I carried on. 

"One more step and then you've made it, Lily," said my grandfather from the bottom of the ladder.

I tried not to look down and took the step towards the ladder. Done, I thought to myself. Stable ground under my feet again at last. I slowly climbed down the high ladder until I reached the grass at the bottom again. 

"Adventure successfully completed." I heard behind me.

I turned round and throw myself into my grandfather's embrace. 

"Thank you for your help," I whispered in his ear.

All those big and small moments with my grandfather come back to me as I bend down to my mobile phone to read the message from my mother.