Grandpa

I remember each summer spent at your home

Each adventure grama seemed to drag us kids on

Hoping for a better glimpse of the world outside the window

And you, of course, always along for the ride

Always smiling, and making jokes, and telling us to keep up with grama--right before she’d call back for us to pick up the pace.

These trips

Though at the time ages to a ten year old

Were never long enough, in retrospect

And decreased in frequency far too fast as we grew old and started living our own lives

I remember, once, you asked us how we knew you loved us

A question I dodged for lack of words, and Logan expressed with words that are not mine to give

A question that honestly, I don’t think needed an answer.

We know you love us, because we know that you love

You love the sea, golf, your aging cat, your favorite shirt, the shoes that were broken in just right, the comfy chair where you could sit to watch a good game (always with the captions playing in case grama would care to glance over and be just a bit too hard of hearing for the mumbling speaker), and most of all-you loved your family.

You were proud of all of us, even if we weren’t proud of ourselves.

That kind of support is valuable beyond what words can express,

And that support is one thing that each of us will send with you today as we mentally say our goodbyes to you in this world

We may be sad to see you moving on, but we are here to celebrate the life you lived, and you--you really lived it.