This is my Grandpa Karl at Sarah's baptism, July 2006. It's not the best picture, but it is the only one I can find right now.
Here are some of the things I love best about Grandpa:
- He always had the best garden with all sorts of fruit trees and vegetables. It was my favorite part of his home in Castro Valley. His yummy oranges saved me from a bout of severe morning sickness with Anna.
- My second favorite part of his home was his art studio. He has painted for as long as I have known him (since I was 5), and I used to love to see his pictures, and although now I realize that they weren't usually very good, he painted a few that I love! Anna, my little artist, always loved to see his pictures and talk to him about painting, too.
- He loved wildlife and loved to fish and catch crawdads at the farm (my mom's family farm).
I always thought it was so gross that he would eat crawdads. He would also hold his fishing bait, big red salmon eggs, in his cheek for easy access.
- He taught us how to eat a whole apple, including the core and seeds (not that I ever do that anymore). You have to start from the bottom.
- When I stayed with him and Grandma for a couple of weeks when I was 5, he took me golfing (that was boring) and taught me how to eat an artichoke.
- Just a year ago, he still remembered the kindergarten song about Sammie that I used to sing to him. I don't even remember the song. He didn't remember me as an adult and would always ask me who I was whenever he saw me. But he always remembered the 5 year old me after I told him who I was, and he was always so happy to see me.
- He and his first wife never had any children of their own. When he married Grandma, he happily took on her 5 children and several grandchildren just as if they were his own, and except for one recent incident involving Zach, he's always been sweet and patient with the whole huge crew. He's especially loved having all the babies around the past couple of years, to the point that he even wanted Grandma (who's 81) to have a baby, too.
Grandpa, we love you and will miss you so much.
9 comments:
I'm sure sorry to hear about your grandpa, Susan. Even though it's "expected", it's still hard. love, ashly
This is such a sweet tribute. He sounds like a wonderful person.
So sorry Susan! But please share the story about Zach.
I'll have to get some input from Amy on the Zack story. All I remember is that it involved hair pulling and the words, "You're a liar!" And I'm not sure Amy thinks it's funny yet.
Actually the story was funny then and it still is! In a strange way it really is a tribute to the friendship that Zach and grandpa had. When Zach was around 4 he was rough-housing a little too much with grandpa. When grandpa asked him to stop "hitting" him, Zach said he wasn't (he was probably "punching" him) so grandpa pulled his hair to stop him and called him a liar for denying it! It was pretty funny. We lived there at the time, so their relationship was more like brothers. I'll try and post some sweet pictures of the two of them, other than that one incident they really were best buddies and sweet with each other. I'd rather that be their legacy!
The last paragraph about him wanting 81-year-old grandma to have a baby is the absolute sweetest thing. What a cute man!
Dear Susan, I love your Grandpa and I'm sorry you had to lose him. He sounds like a real person and not just some in the corner old person. We should all be that amusing when we're old.
I remember one day when I was playing cards with Liz and my mom, grandpa came in because he was hungry and he sat their watching us play. He suddenly asked if he was in a hospital. "No you're being cared for by your family grandpa." Liz kept saying, he then said he should be in a hospital."
This happened about three times when he asked me if I was a nurse.
I loved this post. It reminded me of my gramps who had Alzheimers before he died--just the funniest stories! I got queasy when I read about him keeping the bait in his mouth, but I just kept reading! Bless your grandpa's heart!
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