Back Home, Back to Blogging

As I stood in the reception hall following my Grandpa's funeral, I found myself smiling and laughing. I was perusing a poster board covered with photographs of Grandpa. Some were pictures of him as a young man with curly hair and a big smile. Others were showed him as a young father, standing proudly with his four children in their front yard. The one picture that encapsulated how I will always remember him showed my Grandpa conducting our family in a round of "Happy Birthday" at someone-or-another's birthday party. I will always remember being a little girl at those parties. I was always so excited to go to my grandparents' house, because my grandparents were so wonderful at being grandparents. They cared about their grandchildren genuinely. They always listened to us, talked to us, and made us feel important and valued. As we grew, they came to all of the important events in our lives, and were at most of the not-so-important ones as well.

After my Grandma passed away, and my Grandpa met and married Mary, they continued to show that same love and concern for all of their grandchildren and great grandchildren. Grandpa was a loyal reader of this blog, and always told me how much he enjoyed it. He loved to know what was happening in our daily lives and in the lives of our children (his great-grandchildren). I hope that I can give my little Peanuts, and all of the people in my life the same gift that my Grandpa gave me. The gift of feeling loved, of knowing that you are important to someone. He never made me feel as though I was bothering him by talking on and on. Which I did. Often.

Instead, he listened. I know that he *really* listened, because he remembered.

I will always remember him.