Grandparents

I think I have the most amazing grandparents ever! Just a short life sketch. My grandpa was originally from UT. His father left the family when my grandpa was a teenager, so he had to drop out of school to work on the farm to try and keep the family afloat. They ended up moving to my hometown and that is where he met my grandma. My grandma was born and raised in that little town. Her grandparents helped settle that town. Her grandmother was the first woman elected into the state legislature and her grandfather was the sheriff. Her father eventually became sheriff as well and was killed in the line of duty. She was very close to her father and had so many fond memories of him. My grandpa was 8 years older than my grandma and she was very young when they got married. In fact, her first child was born on the day she should have graduated from high school.



During WWII, they moved to a town in the western part of the state and ran the airport. My grandma ran the lunch counter and my grandpa ran the airport itself. He had a heart problem even at that young age, so he wasn't able to join the army and go fight in the war, but he was VERY patriotic. My mom tells stories of when they would be driving down the road and no matter where they were, when the National Anthem played at noon on the radio, grandpa would stop, make everyone get out of the car and put their hands on their hearts. My grandpa was very musical. He didn't know how to read music, but he taught himself to play eight different instruments. He would hear a song, choose which instrument he wanted to play, and figure out how to play the song. He was asked to play in a big band, but his family was too important to him so he turned it down. He was a self taught engineer as well. He took an equivalency test and passed it with an equivalant of a 4 year college degree. I was named after my grandpa as well. My three fondest memories of my grandpa are he would sit down at the piano and play nonstop for two hours. He would flow from one song to another without stopping and it was so amazing and beautiful. He also loved the rain. He would sit out on his porch swing in the middle of a storm and revel in the excitement of the thunder and lightning and enjoy the smell of rain washing down the earth. My third favorite memory is, he used to lock up the Dept of Transportation yard and one of the greatest things to do was go walk with him to lock up. We would always find little treasures on our walks and he loved to point out plants and flowers and birds. It was very sad to watch such a brilliant man deteriorate as Alzheimers ravaged his brain.



My grandma was one of the sweetest ladies on the planet. She was also a lady in the truest sense of the word. She was loved and respected by everyone she met, even the local madam! When her kids were growing up, she ran the telephone switchboard in one of the towns they lived in and then ran a bakery out of her home when they moved to a nearby town. She loved to sing and had the voice of an angel. She was also the one that everyone confided in when they had a problem. She loved dirty jokes, but she would get so embarrassed by them! She would put her hands up to cover her mouth and just giggle! When I graduated from High School, one of my classmates put on a woman's teddy and was going to flash our class and flash the audience. I honestly didn't think he would do it and I told him so. After he walked across the stage and got his diploma, he turned and pointed at me, unzipped his gown and flashed everyone! It was hilarious!!! I found out later that my grandma put her program in front of her face and said "Oh my!!!", but she didn't cover her eyes with that program!! lol She also had a favorite swear word....shit! It was pretty funny when she would get upset or would drop something, that was the first word that she would say! Or hell's bells! None of her grandkids' friends ever called her by her name...she was grandma to them too. She was everyone's grandma! She was also so dedicated to her husband and her family. My grandparents were married for over 50 years and she spent everyday trying to make my grandpa's life easier. At the end of my grandpa's life, she had no choice but to put him in a home because she was handicapped herself and it was just too hard to take care of him on her own and it killed her that she had to do it. He died shortly after that.

I had the rare experience of being able to live with my grandparents off and on in my life. The first time was when I was a baby. My dad went to Vietnam so my mom and I moved in with my grandparents. Then we did it again when my parents split up. After I graduated from high school, I lived on my own for a while and then I moved in with my grandma for a while to save some money.

My grandparents were 8 years apart and 8 years after my grandpa died, my grandma died. It was a huge loss for all of us. When my grandma was alive, she would call her kids or her grandkids and say, "Tell me something exciting. I like to live vicariously through you." She always wanted something exciting to happen to her. We had her funeral in the city where she lived, but she was buried in our tiny hometown next to her love. On the day of her burial, everyone was gathered around waiting for the hurse to get there with grandma. We waited and waited and waited some more. Finally, he pulled into the cemetary. The funeral director came running up to my mom and said, "I have something important to tell you." When they were about 5 miles out of town, a small car passed the hurse at a high rate of speed. The female driver overcorrected and rolled her car right in front of them. So the hurse of course pulled over to lend assistance to the people in the car. When the driver got out of the car, she saw the hurse and fainted! lol My grandma finally got her excitement on her burial day and she was late to her own burial! A few years later, I was sitting in a first responder class. I was listening to the fire chief talk about this call he had responded to. It was about a rollover and a hurse stopped to help. The fire chief pulled up on scene of the collision and said outloud, "Wow, they are jumping the gun a bit!" lol Interesting to hear about it from a different perspective!

I love hearing stories about my family, but especially my close family. I see them in myself. There are a lot of things I do that are so much like my dad and yet others that are like my mom. I go to visit my mom and when I sit in her home, I feel that sense of calm and peace that I would feel when I sat in my grandma's home. I just love to go there and lay on the couch, talk to my mom and just be. That doesn't get to happen very often. I see parts of my grandparents in me as well. My LOVE for music, my love for enjoying the rain and I share the same favorite swear word! haha My mom is a lot like my grandma, but I see some of my grandpa in her as well...like going gray prematurely! lol