my grandfather died over the weekend. even though he had been ill for a while, it was still a surprise.
i mentioned my grandfather before, in an earlier blog.
it is easier to think of my grandfather dead than to think of him in pain. or doing what he didn’t want to do, being where he didn’t want to be.
i’m not going to share too much about my grandad, but here are some brief memories:
1) he fought in the second world war. he was a banker, not an army man, but he fought. for as long as canada was in the war, my grandad was "over there". he even came home with shrapnel lodged in his cheekbone above his teeth that remained for the rest of his life. he was with the troops that liberated holland, and returned, 50 years later, to be wrapped in love and thanks.
2) after retiring, he taught ESL free of charge at a local community centre to recent immigrants to vancouver.
3) he loved animals, opera and sport. went to see the movie "as good as it gets" not because of jack nicholson, but because of the brussels griffin dog. ("by far the best actor").
4) when he was 80 years old, he sped me to the vancouver airport after I read my plane ticket incorrectly, in order that i wouldn’t miss my flight and have to pay for another flight i couldn’t afford. i made the flight.
my gran is doing as well as can be expected. how can you be so calm after losing the person you have loved for the past 50 years? i have only loved and known magnificent for eight – i cannot imagine the magnitude of losing the hand i had held for over half a century.
a few years ago, when travelling from san francisco to hong kong via vancouver, mc was staying at my grandparents house. (they loved him so much they gave him keys to their house after his first visit!) he brought out the video camera, and taped them talking about relatives, their love story and lives, recollections they had of their past. they gently argued back and forth over genealogy, dates, and other such events they had shared together as the stories came tumbling forth, to be captured, heard and remembered by the next generations.
