A touching turn in the story of “Draggo,” a giant dragon I bought for my granddaughter Robin after she saw the movie Doolittle and was, at first, frightened of the dragon in the movie.

When I was helping to raise Emma, her daughter, I always tried to respond to her fears by taking her to movies,  getting her books, toys, tools and symbols of the things she feared so that she could conquer them – ghosts, witches and wands, dragons, wolves, monsters.

It worked. Emma runs a successful online baseball section of a sports website, The Athletic, and is in charge of a bunch of seasoned old-time baseball writers. She handles the challenge comfortably and confidently.

We all have our dragons.

I find myself doing the same thing for Robin, sending her witches, skeletons and other toys and symbols related to the normal fears of three-year-olds.

Last week I sent Robin a dragon she named “Draggo,” I didn’t realize it was bigger than she is.

Emma, who has put up with many things from me, was good-natured about it, although taken aback at its size. She and Jay and Robin live in a relatively small apartment in  Brooklyn.

Robin loved the dragon, at first declaring him dangerous and accusing him of eating one of her dolls.

But then, she fell in love with “Draggo” and began to hug him. She wanted to sleep with him, but there was no room in the bed.

She was working things out, as three-year-olds will. She will now see dragons and other “others” in a different way. We don’t need to hate or fear the things out cultures tells us are scary.

This demonstrates to me the need to deal with a child’s fears in a thoughtful and indirect way. In getting a huge dragon, she can learn not to fear things that the culture often presents as dangerous, and also to love what she fears and conquer the fears.

I don’t live near Robin, and will not be an integral part of her life in the usual grandparent way. She will not be the most wonderful thing in my life, I want that to come from my life, not someone else’s child.

But I see there are many ways to connect with a grandchild, even if I am far away and watching from a distance.

Good work, Draggo.