Grandpa
I have been thinking about my grandfather today. I was reading Jen's blog earlier and she did this amazing page about her father. It then stuck me that Grandpa died this week a year ago, on Easter. He had not been well for a very long time. He suffered from Alzheimer's and cancer. He had been living in the VA home for awhile, but he didn't know why he was there and didn't realize that he was sick.
What makes me sad when I think about my grandfather, is that my younger cousins only knew this later version of him. When he couldn't really remember anyone's names or kind of followed people, like my uncle who he lived with, around. He'd be anxious to go nowhere - wanting to get out of the house and then wanting to leave when he got where he was going.
We knew him the best, because we are older and we lived the closest. We saw him all the time, especially after he retired and came to our house everyday. We knew it was him when the doorbell rang three times fast. Sometimes we'd pretend we weren't home and he'd come thorugh the back door and scare us to death. I know, it was mean, but we just wanted to watch MTV and not have his running commentary about how the guys all look like girls. He was as un-p.c. as it got.
When my cousins were little, he loved watching them play. He went to all of my brother's games. He would call me to tell me he saw one of my article in the Jersey Journal. He was a big fan of my baking.
It was hard to watch him get worse. At Taylor's baptism party he was having trouble making a cup of tea, and I got up to help him. And in response, he said, "Thank you, miss." That was so strange, but I knew how happy a cup of tea could make him.
I just wanted to share this LO I did last year. It was one of the hardest I've ever done, but it's also one of my favorites.
posted by Robin at Wednesday, March 29, 2006
7 Comments:
Beautiful Robin!!! I love the journaling and your page you did is just awesome!! Losing family is so hard.
(((HUGS))) Your grandfather would sure be proud of this! Sounds like he was a very special man! Scrapping about lost loved ones is so soothing for the soul :)
I'm glad you have memories of him, Robin. One of the hardest things I had to deal with when scrapping my grandfather's WWII service for my family was realizing what I had missed out on by not knowing him (he died when I was 1 yr old). I went through a mourning process during that project. It's a beautiful LO and I loved reading your memories of him! Thanks for sharing them.
That's a beautiful tribute LO and I love all the details about him that you jotted down. I can just picture it when you described him in your explanation coming around everyday and then sneaking in the back when you ignored the door. Also loved the picture you have with him. You look so sweet there :)
karen (Hom74)
thisss is so beautiful! I love it! The journaling, the pic, the layout..everything!!
Ah! Brought a tear to my eye, really it did! It sounds like your grandpa was a wonderful man.
Robin!! Love this layout!! I know exactly what you mean about "not knowing the person"... I feel that way about my Dad. My kids will never really know their grandpa like they should. My grandparents are all still alive and I'm 34... my kids lost their grandpa when they were 3 and Daniel never met him. Daniel's middle name is Terry after my dad... that's another layout that I have on my radar to scrap.. when I saw your seriously kit, I thought about that layout. I may use your stuff to scrap it.
But I really love the style of this layout and the little bits of info on the left side. That's an awesome way of remembering. I just might snag a lift of that style and do one about my dad (one that's not such a tear-jerker..lol!)
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