Last week my grandfather passed away. I was very lucky to have had the pleasure of getting to live with him when I was a child, to know him as an adult and that my husband got to know him. He was a character who experienced more in his lifetime than I probably ever will. His expectations were high when I was young but as I got older, he became more and more accepting and encouraging. I had the pleasure of celebrating his life with my family, and though I will miss him every day, he lives on in many ways through myself and the rest of his grandchildren and now great grandchildren.
Right before I heard he died I had been putting together the following letter. I notice things that I do every day because of him. I never sent the letter, but I thought I should write the things down anyway while they are fresh on my mind.
Dear Granddaddy,
I notice things every day that I do that make me think of you, and I thought I would tell you some of them.
1. Watching the evening news, you watch Peter Jennings, I like Katie Couric. The night feels off if I dont know the headlines.
2. Good Morning America. When I see that show I am reminded of all of the mornings we ate breakfast watching that tiny tv at the table before I went to school. When I am retired you better believe I'll watch every day.
3. Reading. You inspired my love of reading with your enthusiasm for the Wizard of Oz, the hundreds of books around the house, Time Magazine on the table, and the morning newspaper.
4. The word 'drawers' - as in 'keep your drawers on' - I use it around the house all the time.
5. Biscuits - you always appreciate the value of a good homeade biscuit or roll. They had to be buttered immediately when placed on the table. I make homeade biscuits, and Dave butters them.
6. Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwhiches, Banana Cake, Grape Juice in Tea, Pralines, Dry Roasted Peanuts, Pineapple Preserves, Homeade Sugar Cookie Dough (frozen) - some of your staples that have become some of mine.
7. Penmanship - I have always loved your handwriting. You would give me a hard time when I wrote sloppy letters. I still think about that when I write now.
8. Your sayings. "Dollar waiting on a dime", "slicker than greased owl .... ", "can't subsitute s for b"...I could go on and on.
9. Education - you are the reason that I cared about getting an education, and that I got into good homework habits. You used to tell me that I couldnt concentrate at the kitchen table - go sit at a desk. Then you'd check my homework, tell me what was wrong, and make me go figure out the right answer on my own. I appreciate that now.
Thank you for making me apologize to the neighbor when I threw rocks in their pool - it wasn't so appealing to be bad when I had to own up to it.
Thank you for singing the 'wake up Jacob' (old american folk song) to me in the morning to wake me up. You got such a kick out of how annoying that was and I will always remember it.
Thank you for building me a go-cart, a tree house and a stool with my initials on it.
You're with me every day.
Love,
Tanya
A sunset from the house:
No comments:
Post a Comment