I'm in the sandwich generation. I have teenage and young adult children and senior citizen parents.

With grandchildren and a grandmother, the sandwich in my case is a Dagwood.

Being in the middle of a multigenerational sandwich has its challenges, but it's a tasty place to be.

When I called my grandmother a couple of years ago to tell her that my daughter had given birth, I got to be one of the few women who has ever had a chance to utter the phrase, "Hi, Grandma, guess what? I'm a grandma!"

My grandmother is 93 (94 in July) and shows every sign of making it to 100. She was widowed before I was born and has outlived two of her five children, but those tragedies in no way define her life. She was born and raised on Galveston Island, spent her young adult years raising a family as a military wife on Army bases throughout the United States, then returned to Galveston when her husband retired.

Because of her early widowhood, my grandmother, unlike many women of her generation, began working outside the home once her children were in their teens. She put in nearly 30 years as a secretary (they didn't call them "administrative assistants" back then) at the local Catholic hospital. Grandma lived alone in her own house until she was well into her 80s, and her island home, just blocks from the beach, was always the preferred vacation destination not only for me as a child, but also for my husband and our children.

My mother is, well, of retirement age, but her primary role in life is not one from which she plans to retire. My only brother was injured in a diving accident more than 20 years ago, leaving him paralyzed from the chest down. At an age when most women were wrapping up their predominant role in their children's lives, Mom ramped her's up. She's been my brother's primary caregiver ever since his accident. She devotes the rest of her energy to keeping up with my sister, me and our families, as well as with her own mother.

My oldest daughter graduated high school at 17, then married and began a family before turning 20. She has two children younger than 3, and they live in Longview and come to visit Grandma (that's me!) frequently. (OK, they come for Grandpa, too. And Uncle Tim and Aunt Eden. And the "kee cats" because they only have a dog.)

As a grandma with teenage children still at home, I can't always "spoil" my grandchildren to the extent that I would like, but we still have lots of fun together.

With this many generations involved, planning for Mother's Day can require the organizational skills of an Army general. After having ascertained that my mother is not going to visit her own mom, who now lives in an assisted living facility in Houston, we talked about whether my children, grandchildren and I would go to visit her or she would come to Longview. Mom decided to come up here, which seems a bit backwards, but there's only one of her (two, if my brother chooses to accompany her) and eight of us.

Oh, and if anybody is wondering what we call three generations of grandmothers: years ago, my oldest daughter tagged my mother "Little Grandma" and my grandmother "Big Grandma." Those names have stuck. I suggested renaming my mom "Medium Grandma" when my own grandchildren came along, but nobody else thought much of the idea. So I am simply "Grandma." Or, as my husband puts it, "the grandma who requires no modifiers."

Reporter Angela Ward covers nonprofit agencies, Gregg County, Spring Hill Independent School District, the city of White Oak and Gladewater city and schools.