One of the saddest things is my children not knowing my dad, the most wonderful dad in the world. He wasn’t perfect - by a long shot, but he loved me, he treated me well, he chose me. You see, he adopted me, and he died when I was six months pregnant with my first child – with his very first grandchild. You see, my children don’t know how calm, gentle and patient their grandpa was. They don’t know what his smile looked like or how his voice and laugh sounded. They don’t know how he liked to just snuggle – all stretched out on the floor – and watch a movie or a favorite t.v. series of his. They don’t know how wise he was or how very proud he was that he was going to be a grandpa. He would have absolutely spoiled them rotten! He would have built them the best quality, roomiest, most durable play house in the history of play houses. He would have taught them to be good people by having them sweep up the sawdust after him as he worked as a carpenter and builder – just like he had my brother and I do. He would have sat them on his lap and asked them what was the matter when they were upset. He would have then boughten them a little something special or slipped them some spending money and told them not to tell their sibs, because he didn’t have enough cash, at the moment, for everyone. They would have seen a grown man dote on a toddler. As they grew, he would have taken them to lunch and spent one-on-one time with them. They missed going to Christmas Day movies with their grandpa. They missed the good smell of fresh sawdust and the reverberating sound of hammered nails. They missed sitting on the porch swing with him and swinging and sitting and talking. They missed going snowmachining and changing their clothes in the cramped cab of a pick-up truck and then, having to use the toilet of the great, cold outdoors – with no toilet paper – up in the beautiful, still mountains. They missed water-skiing behind grandpa’s boat on a beautiful mountain lake and watching fireworks cascade over the same lake on the Fourth-of-July, standing at Grandpa’s side. It’s so very sad that they will never experience life with their grandfather. It’s one of the saddest things in the whole world.
