Grandpa

My Grandpa died this morning. I found out yesterday that he wasn't doing well while I was home with two sick kids so he was on my mind all day. I started telling the boys about him. I dug through some old pictures and found some of him at our wedding, our first house, holidays, picnics, and a picture of him as a young boy. I told the boys some stories about him. Grant was especially tickled that grandpa loved the Cincinnati Reds, "just like me, mom?" I started recalling all sorts of things about grandpa: stories of his hardware store, his key machine in the basement, his closet of suits in the hallway, his garden, his chair on the back porch, his old radio tuned to baseball games in the summer, him painting our first and second homes, his love of the buckeyes, his toothpicks, his old blue quilted coat, his hamburger press, going to the US Store with him, going to the farmers market with him in his pinto, him playing Hello Dolly on the organ, riding to Kentucky for vacation and sitting on the arm rest in the front seat beside him, him showing me how to 'skin' a fish in Canada, his plaid pants, him cooking bacon before church, and hundreds of memories of being at his house with aunts and uncles and cousins for holidays or birthdays or for no reason at all. I'll miss my grandpa I loved him very much. I feel lucky to have been able to grow up one block away from his house, and lucky to have so many great memories of him. Just think of the rejoicing in heaven today, he is whole again and reunited with his family and the One who blessed us with his presence.