I meant to write this post yesterday but I was too sad but it’s still something that I want to write and I’m doing okay now so I figured today was good.
One year ago yesterday my family lost a truly wonderful man, my Poppa. He was a smart, loving, supportive, funny man and I don’t know that I could ever express the impact he had on my life. I’m going to try to do that in this post.
I know that anyone who reads this probably doesn’t know my poppa but I’m still going to share what he meant to me. Or try to the best I can. I really don’t think I can ever fully articulate exactly how much he meant to me.
When I was born my dad and my mom lived with my gramma and poppa for a while so ever since I was born he was in my life. I am truly thankful that I grew up with my grandparents. They are a huge reason I am the way I am today. When my dad and mom were at work my gramma and poppa would watch me. I didn’t go to preschool I stayed with my grandparents and they helped me to learn the things that I would’ve learned at preschool and so much more. When I started going to school I would get on and off the bus at my grandparents until my dad or mom would come and get me. Often times my dad would work in the garage at their house after work and I would stay until he went home. I had Monday nights at my grandparents where I would stay the night with them every week. I don’t know when it started or when it ended but it was a thing for quite a while. I would have dinner with them almost every night when I got off the bus there and my poppa would help me with my homework if I ever needed it.
One of my fondest memories of my grandparents was when I was really young I had found an old skeleton key and my gramma didn’t know what it went to so it was mine and I called it my “Key to Imagination”. With that key anything was possible. My grandparents took daily walks with the dogs and they took me along as well. They had three fields by their house and we would walk to one of them and let the dogs run around and we would walk. I would take my key with me and we went on so many adventures. When it was summer or nice weather we would go to “the jungle”, when it was winter we would go to “the Antarctic” and my grandparents just went along with it. Not just went along with it even but encouraged it. They helped my imagination to flourish.
In one of the fields there was a spot in the trees that was kind of cleared out but still had some trees there. Well that was my “lab” or “lair” and one time while we were working and stopped in there so I could “work” for a bit I had found a small match box with a gemstone or an arrowhead in it and I was delighted. My poppa had told me it came from “The Little’s”. They were little woodland people that wanted to communicate with me. So we would go home and find something that I could take to them the next day. We even started to exchange letters. I now know that it was my poppa leaving these things for me and writing those letters to me and I cannot tell you how much that stuff meant to me. I was so excited that I had these little friends that I could talk to in the woods. I will forever remember that experience. All thanks to my poppa.
There was another little clearing in a different field where my gramma and poppa would take me and let me bring a few carrots or ears of corn to leave for deer and any other woodland creatures.
I mentioned earlier that I would eat dinner with my grandparents a lot. Well afterwards after everything was cleaned up and dishes were done, my gramma and poppa would like to read at the table for a little bit and I wanted to be like them so I would read too. I attribute my love of reading to them and my love of writing to my poppa. He would write stories and things and I love to write and want to be a writer one day. (I know that’s what I’m doing now but I want to write stories). But I used to write little stories when I was younger and they would read them. They were not very good but they encouraged me to keep going. I read one of my poppa’s stories one time and I wanted to do just like he did.
Also on those Monday nights I had with my grandparents, one of my favorite things was after dinner and before bed, we would sit in one of the spare bedrooms they had and we would watch The Honeymooners on a BetaMax. I LOVED The Honeymooners.
My love of many older things came from my gramma and poppa and I will forever be grateful to them for sharing those things with me and teaching me about things that I would otherwise never have known about. My Poppa is one of the greatest men I have ever known and I know that I can never aptly express just what he truly meant to me but I miss him so much everyday and just hope I am making him proud.
To my Poppa I will forever love you and always miss you and hope that you are looking down on me smiling. I try to make you proud everyday and just hope you can see.
Think With Your Heart 