Grandpa with Baby Jamie. Grandpa was 70 when I was born!
Me sleeping on Grandpa’s lap.
Grandpa and me before my 8th grade Christmas dance.
Grandpa always let me pamper him. Here we were doing mud masks but we also did nails, toenails, etc. He had blue toenails for a very long time — and sometimes sparkly fingernails!
Grandpa and me on his 90th birthday.
Today, my Grandpa would be turning 96.
Grandpa was more than just a Grandpa to me. Grandpa was, as most people would define the term, my dad. When my mom became pregnant with me she moved home and Grandpa bought the house I grew up in. By the time I was a little over a year old we were living with Grandpa. We lived with Grandpa until I was 9 and then Mom got married. The marriage didn’t work out and we moved back in with Grandpa when I was 12.
For all rights and purposes, I was raised by my mom and my grandpa. For most people this seems like a hard concept to grasp. It is strange but it really did work for us. Oh, I wish we would have had a bigger house and there were definitely times when the 90 – 50 – 20 age gap was an issue but for the most part we all co-existed pretty well.
When I think back over the course of my lifetime Grandpa was always there for everything that mattered. He gave me breakfast when I would crawl out of bed early in the morning (before Mom wanted to get up). He was there when I got my drivers license, graduated from high school and college, etc. He walked me down the aisle when I got married.
Somehow he managed to balance the Grandpa/Dad act too. He was the one that spoiled me and always got me the “big ticket” items that I really wanted. My Nintendo when I turned 9, my GameBoy when I turned 10, he paid for half of my car when I turned 16 and almost all of a brand new car when I graduated from college. He paid me for good grades which really kept me motivated! Heck, in middle school when I went on a hunger strike he even paid me to eat. (Yeah, I know… I said I was spoiled!)
Two summers ago Grandpa and I were sitting at the old house on the back porch. I had just found out that my first IVF cycle had failed. I made Grandpa promise that he wouldn’t go anywhere until I had a baby. He promised and said he didn’t have any intention of going anywhere. He kept his promise…
Today, Mom and I released red balloons with cards from all of us. It may seem strange to most but for us, it just seemed right. The balloons took off towards the little town where Grandpa was born. I told Mom they were headed there to have a drink. Grandpa loved a stiff Walkers ‘n water.
We also had a chocolate cake with chocolate icing that Mom ordered. We lit a candle and the whole works.
Yep, we celebrated a dead man’s birthday. But celebrating is better than crying.
Grandpa used to take us for a cruise up town, when we were almost driving age. He’d take us to get an ice cream.
Happy Birthday!