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posted by bikenomad @ 3:45 PM 0 comments

My grandpa died

My grandpa died
Last Friday morning at 3:30 am the phone rang – early morning phone calls are either really bad or really good news.  Crying on the other end shook my sleepiness quickly.  We spent Friday making travel arrangements.  United Airlines was both really bad & really good (hope the really good prevails to keep them out of bankruptcy)

My grandpa died
He was part of the “greatest” generation – Born in 1917.  He lived through 2 world wars, the depression, recession, knew where his food came from, experienced the birth of mass media & mass production.

My Grandpa died
He was a survivor – world war II, the depression. He was a stickler for discipline and excellence.  You didn’t do just the minimum required you did your best.  If catechism was the subject at hand, for grandpa you memorized the answers AND the questions AND you better be able to answer them in any order.  The job wasn’t complete until he said it was complete.  The lid on his coffin wasn’t flush – that would have irked him.  He would have commented on the worksmanship.

My grandpa died
It was good for him.  He was failing and I would never want him to be a “hanger” plugged into life with tubes & energized through pills.  My grandpa was full of life.  He longed to see new places & new things traveling in his later years in an RV all over America (as his parents had traveled)

My grandpa lives
He was converted in midlife, saved by Jesus Christ.  Now Jesus came for him, led him through death to a new home, new travels.  His home had been prepared for him.

My grandpa lives
In me, There is little I can do with a trace back to the passion of my grandpa.  His choices of faith determined where I was born, raised, & converted.  His failings live on in me, I’m impatient with failure, lack of perfection.  But also his passions of ball, craftsmanship, gardening, sport, & vocal expression flow out in me along with his children.

I miss him, but will think of him and pass him on to my children.

posted by bikenomad @ 3:22 AM 1 comments