Last week I said goodbye to my grandfather at his funeral. I know this isn’t goodbye forever, as I will meet him again in Heaven. But (God willing) it is goodbye for a while until we meet again in the glory of the Lord. I hate saying bye. Near the end, I knew he was nearing the end, we had closure. But the man suffering lying in bed did not act like my grandfather, did not look like my grandfather, and really wasn’t my grandfather.
My grandfather, my Papap, departed days before his last day on earth. Papap was a man full of life, standing 6’4”, strong and proud. He was a hardworking man, with enormous hand, (that even as an adult my, rather small, hands barely extended beyond his palm) that were always stained. His feet were the biggest feet of anyone I knew. I remember clugging around in his boots as a little girl and hardly being able to walk, later in life, even extending well into his dementia, he would line his foot up with mine and laugh at the size difference. The last time he did this was the second to last of 2014, I will never forget that day. That was the last day I got to spend with Papap (not the last day I spent with my grandfather but the last day that I spent with Papap), the man that was and always will be my grandfather, he was himself, major pieces were missing but overall he was Papap. He always did like the comic section of the newspaper, which was a cool part of him that he was a hardworking, proud man that always had a jovial side. Also with the dementia a lot of the time he seemed to remember me as younger than I am, so he was trying to read the comics to me. He was really struggling with his speech and with reading, and was becoming frustrated, so I said to him, let’s read it together. And I read him the comics and we looked at the pictures together, he told me which ones to skip because he “didn’t ever read those ones.” It was a sad, but good ending memory to have together.
There were so many memories. Like piano recitals. Mawmaw and Papap never missed one, ever. And many times I was convinced that Papap was asleep. I would ask mom about it, and didn’t quite believe her when she would say he was closing his eyes to help him focus, but I do know that that was true. He really did enjoy those listening to us kids make music. Even up into his last days, conversations would be harder and harder but playing the piano for him brought a smile to his face, and was so much more enjoyable than struggling through a conversation. I was really happy to hear that Mawmaw plans on getting her piano tuned now for her enjoyment.
Another memory is Papap and dogs. In my life time Mawmaw and Papap never had a pet, but I hear that they always had dogs, this kind of came as a surprise to me, just since I have never seen them with pets. But I have one recent memory, captured by picture of him with my dog, Nala. Nala is not the most trusting dog, and kind of skittish around men, but it was really just a joy to see how much he liked to sit and pet her all alone in the sun this past fall. He really did enjoy time outside, and the peace of a quiet moment. I think I already mentioned he was a fairly quiet, reserved man.
A funny memory looking back was one of the days I cutting grass with him in Sewickley. After he retired he started his own little lawn care business thing, where he took care of quite a few lawns in Sewickly. Keagan and Harry went with him to do this pretty often, for a least a summer or two. I think it was one of the last summers that he did it, Keagan and Harry had less time and less interest in doing this with him, so I went. I made some extra money, and it was hard work. I think I was somewhere around 10, at the time, no I wasn’t crazy about it. I didn’t really have a sense of money yet, so that didn’t really faze me, and it was hot, and hard. But looking back even though it was only a few time, I can honestly say I got to go to work with Papap and see him make a business out of one of his greatest passions (gardening). I haven’t really thought of it before but maybe, in some way, this sparked my interest in opening my own business. But on to the funny part…. We were driving home from Sewickly one day, and he said that he wanted to show me the old town. I wasn’t sure what part of what old town he wanted to show me. But really to be honest, I didn’t want to go. I just wanted to get back to their house and cool off, play in the creek, take a shower, eat popsicles I didn’t care, just not ride around in that hot old truck, listening to polkas, driving through some old part of some old town. Well we got to the old town, it was downtown Aliquippa. Not the best town and by far not the best part of that town. When the mills were open it is where he worked, and it wasn’t a bad town, there were many shops and such, but now it is just a rundown town, without much going for it. He showed me boarded up building after boarded up building. In his mind, I guess through memories, it really worth seeing, which is cool, yet kind of funny, what he thought a ten year old little girl would get out of this. Again looking back, I am glad we did it.
Okay, this could go on for a long time. Like Thanksgiving Dinners, well yea that is one worth sharing. Man, could that man eat. Like a said before he was a large man, but in a tall sense, he was never heavy, but he ate as much as four people. He loved the traditional foods, meat and potatoes. On Thanksgiving he, without exaggeration, would end up picking meat off of the turkey after many plates of food, and he would always say that those little left over pieces had the most flavor.
Yes, this could go on and on and many people could add many memories because they knew him in other ways or for a longer time. Yes, he loved to hunt and dance, and from what I hear party. I didn’t really have too much of a first-hand experience of this, so I will leave those memories for others to share.
Sprinkles through the Day 