Grandpa

My Grandpa was the best father I ever knew. My Grandpa was pretty much the only father I ever knew. He was the only man who was consistently in my life. He loved me, accepted me and taught me more than I could imagine.

My Grandpa, for most of my life, smelled like tobacco and felt scruffy. His "whiskers" would always brush up against my cheek when he would hug and kiss me. He was the best book reader. He would do all the voices of the characters in the book and they would come alive. That may be why I don't remember a time when I couldn't read. And why I read so well. I was on a fifth grade reading level in the first grade.

My Grandpa told the best stories. They could have been from his childhood, when he met my Grandma or from his travels. I loved to sit on the back porch and listen to him talk. Or sing. Or whistle. Everyone did.

My Grandpa loved music. From big bands to Culture Club, he loved a good tune!
"Marezy Doats", "All the Pretty Little Ponies", "O Came, O Come", and "In the Good Old Summertime" are the ones he sang to me since I was a baby. And I sing/ have sung them to my girls for 20 years.

My Grandpa, like Noah Calhoun in The Notebook, loved one woman. But even better than Allie and Noah, it was real. He wrote about meeting her in his journal. He told of how he could not live without her and how they were married not long after that; right before he went to the war.

My Grandpa is the greatest man I have ever known and I judge all men by his example.  If my husband makes my children feel 1/3 of the way I feel about my Grandpa then they are very lucky kids. I know I am!