Presenting Grandpa

I am depressed that my son will not get to meet his grandpa who had passed away a year after I moved to the states. In fact, in a quiet moment between my son and I, I asked him if he met grandpa before was born (on the belief that souls are created in heaven before they are born into little munchkins). Next thing I knew I was bawling my eyes out. My feelings about the timing of leaving the country and if I had only known that it was his last year, is a blog for another day and in fact a blog not yet ready to be written because I am not ready to deal with the guilt associated with it)

Anyway, about my dad, my son’s grandpa… I love that man. I refer to him in the present tense ( I did say I haven’t dealt with it right?) I hear his voice in my head. I tell stories about what he did and his trickster’s ways. All my sister’s children got “grandpa time”. They have a memory of him and secretly think they are his special grandchild.That was grandpa's way. My son has nothing. I feel this great loss for him. I moved to the states and couldn’t take much with me of my father. I took with me his Robinson Crusoe ( his won this as a prize for English) and his Shakespeare Collective works. I took the keys to his old Mercedes.No, I did not do it in spite so that no one could drive it. He had sold it years ago. I do not know why the keys are still with us. I took with me the old brass keys to doors in the house he bought, renovated, cluttered, planted into a secondary forest and renovated again and in which I grew up and lived for more then 30 years of my life.

My Son…

Grandpa is a character …err was a character ( there I go again). I want you to get to know him and use his stories in your journey in life. Not just what he did that was inspiring, but his mistakes as well but most of all his humor and his interest in life of which there were many. Grandpa had "flavour of the month" and often they were consuming passions. He didn’t just have a interest in birds when he was interest in birds he had 38 birds of all manner and exoticness.( guess who had to clean and feed the birds??) He didn’t have a fish bowl or an aquarium when he was interested in fish but turned our house into an almost moat with three 30 feet long pools...not counting those we started of with to begin with( and friends who have visited can attest to this).He and grandma once decided to dis-invite -your mother to a trip to a nursery because she would take up “plant space” in the car. ( its does humble a person) He believed you could learn almost anything in a book and you will hear me say that repeated. He and grandma thought of me as the personal pack mule, doing their heavy lifting of pots of plants and other large objects. ( guess what mama's going to use you for son? Once you can stand up that is...)

So in the midst of me grieving at your loss of meeting him, your dad said that of course you would know grandpa because all you had to do was to know your mama. So son, guess what? Your dad has a pretty dashing and interesting character too, huh?