my grandpa was a special man. he was the only man i have known to actually be a man. he defended me against my own father before. he picked me up from school when i was young. we took walks together. we went to church, just he and i. he and i were members of the same church; the only two in our family. we had a special bond. i mean, i love all of my family.. but that man had a very special place in my heart. he was so proud of me for no reason. he would stand at the front door of the sanctuary of church with me and introduce me to the church body. he loved me.
he knew i was strong before i knew i had it in me. he was a conservative southern baptist but do you know what he said when i told him i was pregnant out of wedlock? "it's going to be a boy!" he was happy for me. i think he was happy to have his first great grandchild as well.
i always said that he would be the man to give me away at my wedding. unfortunately, that day will never come as he passed away three years ago this past september 12th. i remember him saying during some of his last words, "luke skywalker!".. and his eyes lit up as he was struggling to sustain consciousness. i love that man.
today is his birthday. i wish so badly luke could have really known him. but in our own way, we make sure we speak to him every night. we say "God bless you, grandpa in heaven. Did you just burp?" ...and i know he is up there wishing he could scrape his stubble across my face with his toothless grin and bear hug engulfing me.
happy birthday, grandpa. i miss you and love you so much.
because luke insisted we have a birthday cake for him:
sorry for the picture quality; bad lighting in the kitchen
and my phone doesn't take very good pictures!
A lovely tribute to an, obviously, great man.
ReplyDeleteJust reading over some posts I have missed...what a gift to have a grandpa like that. So glad Luke insisted on cake, sounds like your grandpa would have approved.
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