Goodbye, Grandpa

I returned home tonight from a quick trip to Missouri, where we buried my grandfather. He died early Sunday. He had been sick for some time and in May moved to a nursing home with my grandmother when he needed more medical care. 

Maya and Guillermo are too little to have memories of him, I'm afraid, but I have lasting memories. I remember that he always woke up early, he loved to talk, ate slowly, really slowly, and always had a smile for me. He was a very kind man who loved his wife and children. 

He and my grandmother had a trailer, and later a motor home, at a campground near their home for more than 30 years. Visiting them there was so fun because the campground also had a water slide, a pool, a park and a go-cart track, though I think that came later. Plus, there were hayrides and an amphitheater, where we saw the play "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" many times. 

We lived about three hours away from my grandparents but we spent most Christmases together when my sister and I were younger. I remember being so sad one Christmas because it was snowing so much they couldn't make it to our house for Christmas morning. For several Christmases, my grandfather gave me whatever toys he would get with his breakfasts at Hardee's. I think one year I received four little pound puppies; another year I received four California Raisin figures. 

He would bring us Dilly bars from Dairy Queen at least once when we visited and he and my grandmother always left coins for us to put into the piggy banks they kept for us at their house. Mine was either a yellow pig or a blue pig (I can't remember which was mine, and which was my sister's). We played lots of card games with them, including our family favorite Tripoly.

He was a longtime Democrat and a St. Louis Cardinals fan. He worked in the parts department of a car dealership for more than 50 years, either as a parts manager, or, after he retired, as a parts assistant.  

I know my grandfather is in a good place now, and so I'm OK with his passing. What makes me so sad is knowing that my grandmother lost her partner of more than 60 years. She is still at the nursing home, unable to go home because she has alzheimer's disease. It's advanced enough for her to forget that my sister and I visited her this morning before we left to catch our flights, but not advanced enough for her to forget that my grandfather is no longer with her. 

"It's just going to take some time" to get used to him being gone she told us this morning, her red eyes bright with tears. When my sister and I left the nursing home, I peaked at her through the outside window. She was sitting in the same chair she was in when we left her, her head resting in her left hand. Her eyes were closed. 

I'm trying so hard right now to replace that image in my mind with a happier one. It's just going to take some time.