I have absolutely no memory growing up of feeling like I could just go up and hug my grandpa (my dad's dad). It's not that he didn't love us, but he just wasn't the overly emotional 'touchy feely' kinda guy. And that was fine. He said Prayer at our family dinners, discussed farming, then fell asleep in his chair in the living room after dinner.

After my dad died, my grandpa became a lot more emotional. He had just retired (like DAYS before) and was putting the suitcases into the car to take a trip to visit family in Idaho when my mom called to tell him my dad had a heart attack. By the time they reached the hospital, my dad was gone.

My grandpa came out of that retirement to help continue running the farm and ranch he had helped my dad build. He'd talk about my dad and get choked up. He still didn't really offer much in the way of "I love you's" or what not, but still, we knew.

This past weekend at the reunion, I marveled at my son. He didn't know any of these unspoken rules we have on that side of the family. He walked right up to my grandpa, squeezed his legs and said, "I LOVE YOU!!" and walked off.



And he didn't stop there. He hugged every relative he could his hands on. He was full of love and had plenty to give.

I have another photo of my son hugging my grandpa, right after he'd finished hugging my grandmother. Because faces are involved, I'm not posting it ... but the absolute JOY on my grandparents face just makes me so very happy. They were beaming.

I love that unsolicited love so very much. It was a good reminder to me. And lately, my son's been a pretty good teacher.


"Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom."

Marcel Proust

Labels: family reunion, love thursday, the bug

First of all, thanks tons for taking the time to read the last, really lonnnng post and for sharing your stories via comments and email. I was touched and still am by the support and kindness from all of you. So, thanks.

I went to a reunion over the weekend for my dad's mom's side of the family. It's always in this little town where I first lived, population still around 100, I think. To borrow a line from Tim McGraw, it's a "map dot ... a stop sign on the blacktop". It could easily describe this little town (and of course, the next verse is "and I caught the first bus that I could hop from there" - and I did, but I digress):



After the usual kick-ass buffet at the Church Hall, we busted tradition this time and took a drive south of town to see some 'important sites' in our family history.

Man, who knew??

Here's a shot of the one-room schoolhouse my grandmother (now in her mid-80's) taught at:



It sits up on a hill, on a piece of property that friend's own. I have memories of driving past the schoolhouse, but never being able to go inside. This time, we got to. Probably the highlight of the tour for me.

A picture of my grandmother on the steps of this schoolhouse:



My Great Uncle, now 90, came into the schoolhouse with us and told us about having gone to school there, how the desks were set up, memories of coming to school from their homestead a few miles away in bad weather, etc. For many years after they'd stopped using the school, it had been used to store silo. The interior is wrecked, but the blackboard (probably just slate) is still attached:



On Sunday, we went to a concert. And the story in and of itself about the concert is crazy. Just silly. But the end result out of a total waste of money and a day in the hot fucking sun (and numerous applications of sunscreen, by the way), was this:



I'm nursing that this week and staying inside like a good white girl. Or pink, depending.

Labels: family reunion, memories, pictures, sunburn