Memories With Grandpa

I often get asked the questions wondering what happened to my dad or asking if I've ever met him and you know what? I don't need to! I have no interest. My "dad" made the decision to not be in my life. Ever. He doesn't deserve to know me and I often tell people that it's his loss because it is. It was my gain, too. I had a grandpa! I spent every weekend with him growing up and I consider myself to be the female version of him. He was funny, he found humor in everything. He was nice to everyone as we all should be. He was everything a Person should be and I'll never know another person like him as longn as I live. I remember loving Taco Johns as a kid,'so every Saturday, we'd go to white bear lake and he would order two tacos for each of us and we would sit by the lake and I use to think it was so funny the way he would eat them. It was like he was digging his face into the wrapper and devouring that as well. Every time I eat a taco, it brings me back to moments like that. People always make fun of me for loving to watch golf, I looked forward to phone conversations with him and making fake bets on who was going to win that weekend. I loved listening to him tell the pro through the television, as If they could hear him, what they should have done instead, or yelling at the ball. Anything, he knew best and I loved learning the game of golf through his eyes and ears. And you know how grandpa always knows best when it comes to fixing things? Well, he was always over at my house as a kid fixing my moms junky car, especially her muffler. Just like any other week, it had fallen down and grandpa and I picked up the wrong part at the store so he scrambled through the garage to find ANYTHING that could possibly work. What did he use? A training wheel. Yep, you read that correctly. He had somehow found a way to wrap my training where around it and rig the muffler back into its place. No "dad" could ever think of that in my life. A training wheel. How, um, creative! I would often call him around election season because it was fun to get him fired up. Neither of us wanted to argue with the other, but we secretly were arguing in our own minds. One of my favorite phone calls came when I was in college and Obama had been elected for his first term, there was a block party going on in Mankato. I answered his call and he said "I'm just calling to say that, well, whoever it is you voted for, I hope they won. I love you, good night." He was so upset by the election but he couldn't bare to ask me who I voted for. I still have a voicemail from him on that Election Day. I will keep that forever. One of my last memories with him came on my 21st birthday, I believe he knew he was sick and wouldn't get better. He called me up and asked for cake and ice cream and I couldn't say no. I went over and spent the day of my 21st birthday with him. Little did I know that that was the last day I would get to spend in the garden with him picking flowers and helping him with the tomato plants that I loved so much. He died the next month and I say holding his hand as long as possible. I can still her the smile on his face when I told him I wasn't leaving.

There's so much of him that I see in myself and I don't ever spend a day not thinking of memories like the ones I just told you about. His ability to light up a room and wear a smile on even the toughest days always blew My mind. I love how stubborn I am because of him, he taught me that it's okay to not be shy and to talk to strangers. We couldn't go to fleet farm on Saturdays unless we had a 5 hour time block because he would just stand and talk to everyone. My friends can't take me anywhere now without me doing the same. I hope that makes him proud. So back to the point of this, no, I don't need to know anything about my "dad" because I had one and no one will replace that relationship. I'm the winner because he chose to not be in my life, I had my grandpa!