For My Grandfather

Dear Grandfather,

It’s hard to believe you’ve only been gone a short while and already I miss you more than I can say. Thank you for sharing your life with me and for being such an amazing grandparent. I can honestly say that nobody else I know or have ever known or probably ever will know had grandparents like I did. All of my best memories have you and Grandmother in them. My childhood was one of a kind thanks to you and all you did for us. I don’t even know where to begin-all my memories are so jumbled up in my head. There’s just so many of them!!

Thank you for taking me on all those family reunion road trips even though I didn’t have a clue who any of those people were (and yet they all seemed to know who I was!!). I remember the night before the first road trip I went on. I was so homesick & we hadn’t even left yet. I was sleeping in the “Pink Room”. I was complaining of an upset stomach but you saw right through it! You came and sat on the bed and talked to me until I felt better. I had the most fun on that trip with you and Grandmother! Good thing you talked me out of going home!! Thank you for taking us to Kings Island all those times. What did you do the whole time we were in the park!? Again I don’t know where you were but I knew you were there! Thank you for operating the video camera so faithfully at all the family gatherings, line dancing in the basement, Easter Fashion Shows, Christmas morning, the Nativity re-enactment, 4th of July parades in the backyard, and whenever else we wanted to record ourselves! Thank you for BBQing in the summers. You were a one of a kind chef! Hamburgers and hot dogs don’t taste right to me unless they’re burnt to a crisp! Thank you for letting us ride the horses and for helping us get up into the saddle when we were too little to do it ourselves and for helping us trot them around the yard. Thank you for hiding the eggs at our annual Easter party and for not remembering where you hid them all enabling us to find some missing ones at next year’s party! Thank you for speaking at my Baptism and for the tender little talk you had with me afterwards. I have that moment captured in a picture & will keep it forever.

Thank you for marrying Grandmother and for loving her so much. Thank you for sealing our big, crazy family together. I love them all so much. I can’t imagine my life without all my cousins. Thank you for all of our time at Knollwind. It is truly the treasure of my childhood.

I want to tell you that I love you. I love you for the quiet way you sat in the background & let Grandmother be the center of attention (as I’m sure she preferred to be). I can’t honestly say I remember what you were doing all the time but no matter what was going on you were there-probably video taping!! I love you for how excited you would get when we would come to visit and how you just loved to hugs us & scoop us up in your arms! I love to see you sitting in your yellow recliner watching the news at 6:00 with your trusty glass of Pepsi with the crescent shaped ice cubes in it and to see that you’ve once again fallen sleep! I love to go feed the animals in the barn with you and to help gather the eggs. I love to play on all the broken down trucks & flatbeds scattered across the yard next to the barn & to ride around on all the farm equipment even though most of the time I was too afraid to climb up on them! I love to hear you play “Edelweiss” on your harmonica. I love to hear you call me “Missy” and want you to know that I hold that name in reserve only for you and Grandmother.

I’m glad you’re back home with Grandmother. I know you’ve missed her so much since she’s been gone. Even though I am so incredibly sad that you are no longer here with me and that I will have to live the bulk of my life with you so far away, I am that much happier that you are once again with the one you truly love. Please give her a hug for me and tell her that I love her so much. The greatest desire of my heart has always been that you would see me get married. Please come and see me on that day.

I know I will see you again and can’t wait for that reunion and for you to scoop me up in your arms and hug me. Goodbye….for now.

Nobody loves you like I do.

Love,

Missy