I am extremely close to my Grandfather, well, as close as you can be to someone of his generation, I think. We haven’t always been like this, the reasons for which lay in a massive heap and include divorce, death, general family drifting and so on. Nothing pertinent to this blog and probably nothing that should be aired on the internet.

My grandpa, Don, just reached his 75th birthday two weeks ago and particularly, for the past couple of years I have made it a point to do something with him every week. Usually this something is meeting for breakfast at his diner du jour and sitting for a couple hours. I wish everyone could meet him because he IS wonderful, but I hate sharing. Let me paint a picture. He’s big, thick, and worked for years driving semis, even owned his own trucking company which was recently liquidated (see massive heap of reasons above). He hasn’t always treated my dad and uncle the best, but I think he did the best he could do. As the (only) granddaughter/child, I can tell you that despite a gruff exterior, he is really one of the kindest men I know.

I like to sit with him, I like when he tells me stories because the reality is there is no telling when anyone can pass away and after losing so many years with him, I’m trying my best to get everything I can from him. Usually he just talks about what’s going on for him today, or this week. Doctors appointments, people he bumps into from years back.

Today he made a comment about the heat bothering him. I jokingly suggested we go to Alaska - this was mostly spurned on by my addiction to The Deadliest Catch and he told me that he’d already lived in arctic type conditions.

My curious bone was intrigued.

I begged him to give me more information and he started telling me stories about his time in the Air Force (I never knew what branch he was), and he was stationed for a year in Greenland during the Korean War. It will never cease to amaze me the way he can recall stories and details like they happened yesterday. The same goes for my grandmother who lived through the Great Depression and WWII. We spent almost 3 hours at in this corner booth, almost two hours of which were spent recounting the stories of ‘Dear John’ letters from the woman who would be my Grandmother, transfers and top secret details.

It’s important for me to spend as much time with him as possible, given the amount of time I spend abroad. He will tell you that he’s ready to go now and wants to go before he’s 80 but there is such a vital spark to him still. I told him I plan on keeping him around until he’s at least 105. He just laughs.