thanks

This is my favourite picture from my high school yearbook. The careful observer will note the age difference between the four people in the front and the smiling, older gentleman in the back (It was quite some time before I noticed this). One may naturally assume that the man in the back is a relative of someone in the foreground but this is not the case. My grandfather loved having his picture taken and I can only assume that he saw a camera out, stopped, smiled and the result is forever immortalized in my yearbook. I can say that he would not have known any of the people standing in front of him.

I saw a young girl and her grandfather at the grocery store today and I was surprised at the loss I felt for my own. He died a little over 5 years ago and seeing those two in store took me back to when I was young. I grew up without a father but I spent a lot of time with my grandparents during the summer. Consequently, my grandfather was the only real male role model I had (I also thought Jack Tripper from 'Three's Company' was a good guy to emulate).

Even in my earliest memory my grandfather had a slow, measured gait. I can't say for certain but I feel that his driving speed would have been proportional to his walking speed. He was a man who loved his family, his home, fruit and cookies. I'm being a little glib because it's actually very hard to write about him and I feel as though I couldn't possibly do him justice. So instead maybe I'll just end this by saying- thanks Grandpa.