Last weekend my biggest fear of the last seven years came true… my Grandfather passed away.
Friday night (Halloween) I went back home and spent some time with him. That night he was pretty out of it but opened his eyes for about 20 minutes. While he could only respond with a yes, no, or okay. I told him that he did his job and raised me as Grandma would want… That I loved him… he said ok…
Saturday morning my mom woke me up and said they didn’t think Grandpa was going to make it much longer… he held on until Sunday afternoon (Hospice was shocked)… it was an incredibly long weekend. We were up almost all night Saturday night… but had laughs and shared plenty of stories about Grandpa.
When he passed away my Mom, Dad, and I were holding his hands and our dog was licking his face… I’m sure he wouldn’t have had it any other way.
I’m going to miss Grandpa tremendously, he was one of my best friends. I asked for his wedding ring if no one else wanted it… and when my Mom came home from the funeral home we found out that his ring is actually my Grandma’s Great Great Grandfather’s wedding ring as well… so its 140 years old.
This past weekend we had the burial and memorial service. The memorial service was one that was nice… I read a little bit of a paper from college, my uncle read a statement thanking my mom dad and i for all we did… including telling me that the reason my grandpa and i were close was because i was just like my grandma… something I hope to continue. My aunt even sang… (help us all 🙂 )
In memory of grandpa I’m going to try and write a memory of him each night. To remember what he has taught me and the memories we share.
My first memory is how the last 3 months played out in relation to a sock.
Three months ago when I found out my grandpa was moving in with my parents, I was scared and worried that he was not going to be around long. I grabbed the softest sock yarn I had and cast on. I knit randomly on these socks over the 3 months but did not make it very far. Back over labor day weekend he told me about when they (he and my grandma) would be on a road trip and she wouldn’t let him stop until she finished the row she was on. So in his words
“we’d wind up in the middle of nowhere then she’d let me stop”.
Last weekend as he was passing away I was knitting on the sock to keep my sanity. In the last half hour my mom was asking me how many rows I had left… and I would tell her and grandpa’s breathing would slow down. When his breathing got incredibly slow I stopped knitting… I had one row left… And he passed away… My mom and I were kinda laughing that my grandma is up in heaven saying “Just one more row….” 🙂