When I think of Grandad, I think of the pillar of our family- such a strong man who loved teaching his grandkids about history, geology, the stock market, great movies, and how to abide by a moral code that always pointed due north. What never ceases to amaze me though was how loving and thoughtful he was. For being such a sturdy figure, he had the warmest heart. He carved and painted all of us grandkids Mickey and Minnie Mouse plaques when we were each born, he played Pretty Pretty Princess and had "make-believe" parties with all 5,000 of my stuffed animals and me, and he tried his hardest to inspire musical talent in all of us- I'll speak for myself and say I failed miserably with the guitar. We could talk for hours about the latest movies and how wonderful Amy Adams was in 'Enchanted' or how great the music was in 'Chicago'. I loved exchanging stories of college experiences and Greek life and how Cal was definitely going down when they played UW. Just the other week, my uncles were going through some of his things, and they found an envelope that said, "Wedding presents for Grandchildren in case we're not here for their weddings." Inside was a savings bond for each grandchild who had not yet gotten married or engaged. I couldn't believe the amount of thought and love he put into his family. He was so generous and compassionate that he even thought ahead for our hypothetical weddings to people some of us haven't even met yet, and he even threw in a side note that we could still have the bond if we didn't get married by the time we were 30; he seriously thought of everything! It astounds me that even after his time here is up, he's still showing us how caring of a man he was.
A lot of people don’t get the opportunity to form a close relationship with their grandparents, and as much as I wish I had infinite more time with him, I’m so thankful and fortunate that I was able to truly get to know him and respect the man he was, and I’ll cherish our time together forever. I hope he knew how much of an impact he had on our lives and how much we appreciated him as a role model and as a grandfather.