My Grandfather : My Eulogy Of My Grandfather

Throughout my childhood, I was always spoiled and pampered. I knew my parents loved me because of their actions. Till this day, I don’t think I’ve ever

There have been countless influential people in my life that I’ve come across. One who was a meticulous inspiration continues to be my grandfather. My grandmother had remarried to the one I call “grandpa” when I was at the age of five, and they both took to each other’s grandchildren as their own. With my mother and me only living a mile down the road from their farmhouse out in the country, I’d spent heaps amount of time there as a child. Indeed, I had been without a father but my grandfather stepped up to the plate and had taken me under his wing and willingly played the personification of a father figure.

I never really knew my grandpa as well as I would have liked. He was already an old, old man by the time I started high school, and my own memories of him are mostly of a man confined by age and ailing health. So I'm not really going to talk about my memories of him. Instead, I'm going to try to share his memories and the memories of those that knew him.

If there's anyone who could brighten up a room full of people arguing over which part of the turkey they want, disagreeing over politics, sharing the latest family gossip, it's definitely him. It's Thanksgiving and as I enter my grandparent’s house, I see him conversing with my aunt who's resemblance is uncanny, as he sips his glass of white wine and instantly looks up at me. It’s my grandfather, Gelo.

Along with being supportive, my grandpa is one of the most selfless people I know. Whenever my family needs help with anything he is the first person we call because we know that if anyone can do it, or is willing to do it, it’s him. My dad owns a landscaping and plowing business, so he is always wearing down his trucks, causing them to break down a lot. Papa is always up to the challenge of fixing them, even though he never has to. One thing that is really important to him is family, he has always, always put family first.

The scent of fresh pine and baked turkey dominates over all senses, surging into the crisp air of the kitchen. Presents are stacked to the brim of the Christmas tree, while a toy train intermittently passes by. Effervescent ornaments sparkle with the memories of past years. Rooms are full with aunts, uncles, distant cousins, all of who push their troubles aside to celebrate this day once a year: Christmas . It is chaos, but the good kind.

My Grandfather was one of a kind. But I always forever hated despised when my grandmother’s ex-husband would visit frequent; he was always angry, volatile, and short tempered. I hated it. Who is this guy, and why do I have to talk converse with him; I always heard whispers about him, and I did not know what it meant to have lost your mind in Vietnam, but my mother told advised me to be courteous, and go along with it, and years later my mother told informed me the mindless man was my maternal grandfather, and he has passed away. Damn, I never

I distinctly remember the weeknights at his house. Sitting upon his lap, walking down the street, getting pulled in my wagon through a park--these were things I loved doing with Grandpa. I was not just another person to him: I was the ultimate grandson, and I was special.

As a child I used to believe that my life could not get any better because at the age of 6, I had everything that I ever wanted. I was the center of attention and my parents always had enough time to play with me. I always received the most expensive toys, dolls and clothes from my relatives and cousins. I was also brash and troublesome, purposely placing my older siblings in trouble whenever they made me cry or when they don’t follow the things I wanted them to do. In short, I had the life of a very spoiled, stubborn and ignorant child but nevertheless, I used to believe that my life was perfect. That was before my parents told me that I was having a younger sibling.

For many people, Grandpa is a storyteller, someone to go fishing with, and someone who has your back no matter what. The experience I had with my grandpa was a little different. I never got the opportunity to meet my great-grandfather Liston Grider, but he still somehow managed to have a huge impact on my life. Sometimes my mom would tell stories about him; happy memories from her childhood, sad ones that were painful for her to tell, and everything in between. I thought I had heard it all, but this past summer I learned something about my great grandpa that would perhaps impact my life forever. This story was not told by my mom like usual, but by someone who was a complete stranger to me. The lessons I learned would not be taught in a single day, but over the span of a month through a series of Facebook messages and letters in the mail. The words I read upon opening those messages and letters would change my life forever, permanently transform my beliefs, and show me what it truly means to be an American.

Many people only have the privilege of seeing their grandparents on birthdays and other holidays. Luckily for me, I see mine almost every week. My grandparents, specifically my mom's parents, have both played a large role in shaping me into the person I am today. My grandpa, or “Pa”, especially, has been more of a father to me than my own. He has held an essential role in my life, and is continually shaping me each day. My grandpa is a strong-willed and old fashioned man. He likes to do things his way. In addition, he always works hard and provides for his family. Throughout the course of my rather short life, my grandpa has taught me many lessons. Here are three stories that stick out to me the most. They taught me to be adventurous, to work hard, and to get back up after failure.

When we were together we were invincible, us against the world. I’d look up to him, not only because he was 6’4, but because he was my grandpa. I have clear memories of him picking me up from school, playing old school reggae music during our adventurous car rides. We’d always sing along to our favorites, sometimes turn the music up so loud the people in the cars next to us could hear it. When I would visit his apartment, the familiar smell of drywall and pennies would fill the air. It was my hideaway, my home away from home. My grandpa collected pennies in water jugs. He would say that one day they’d be worth more than just pennies. I loved it there, not only because he had a freezer filled with many flavors of ice cream to which he would often say to me “you can have all you can eat” but because it was our time to bond. For five years it was my mom, my dad, and my grandpa helping me to grow. Those are my favorite people, my role models. Being around my grandpa brought me such comfort and joy.

A child cries for one moment and is ecstatic at the other. Childhood is filled with fairy tales and is in fact the most beautiful and justifiable way of escapism every person would like to go back to. The happiness and light heartedness of this phase makes it philosophically interesting. Wordsworth in his poem, Thechild is the father of man explains the wisdom a child can impart to adults.

It all started when my Mother and Father got divorced when I was six. Each of them were trying to gain custody of my two brothers and me. Being at such a young age, we didn’t really know what was going on. My Father go remarried as well as my Mother. My mom would divorce and remarry my stepdad over and over. She was also disabled so she couldn’t work. We ended up moving in with my grandparents on my Mother’s side. When this happened, I would spend a lot of time with my Grandpa. He was always taking us on adventures. We would go fishing and hiking with him all the time. He even let us take one of the catfish home that we caught and put it in the little pool we had to keep as a pet. He was a construction guy. He owned a rundown building in Covington. He would have us come over there for as long as I could remember to help him out. He taught me how to hang drywall and tape up and mud also. I loved hanging out with him. All of this was about to change though for he was soon

As a child I would additionally have great adventures of traveling like those actors on television seeing the more luxurious things in life from the cars they drove to the food they ate it was like another world in comparison seeing a new country and having new extravagant experiences such as riding on the backs of enormous elephants into the vast jungles of the Amazon Rainforest or becoming a race car driver in the South of France, bobbing and weaving between streets in my expensive Ferrari. These were just glimpses of a life not meant for me at the time of being a prepubescent child.