Live life to the fullest
A cold night, sipping hot cocoa and laughing with my girls.
We watch the video clip of Jerrod’s proposal to Alecia for the umpteenth time and giggle as Alecia recites her lines along with her image on the screen. We have so much life ahead of us. Unlike Alecia, I’m not sure what soul I’ll spend the best of my days and nights with. Still unsure of so many things, and yet loving this life that was given to me. So many beautiful people I’ve shared good times and bad with. How is one girl so blessed?
Finishing up my hot cocoa and opening my hometown paper.
Searching for the Engagements/Marriages and find the obituaries. Quick scan and my eyes dart to Grandpa. I knew it would be in here. It makes my heart speed up and tears well. So it’s not all a lie after all? He’s really gone? I never thought there would be a time when I didn’t have Gramps giving me love and dating advice from 1200 miles away in a retirement village in Port Charlotte, Florida. For 90 years he lived and I don’t think he stopped talking long enough to catch a breath in all of those years. He was a man of many words, my grandpa dearest.
Although I know I shouldn’t talk about such things, I knew I was his favorite Grandchild. He would always tell me that I was most like him. We shared a gift for being able to talk to anyone and being a real “go getter” as he phrased it. Thinking back on the time I shared with Gramps, he had a lot of influence on me. He lived by his motto "Make It Happen" and I think I follow this as well. I might not have moved to NYC without friends or a job had it not been the life experiences he'd relayed. He taught me that you could have anything you want from life if you simply make it happen. We shared letters back and forth from the time I was old enough to write to the days before his death. He was always interested in the stock market, so my profession made him quite happy I’m sure. He also spoke with me of my Scottish heritage. If someone asked him if he was scotch, his response was “Sir, the only scotch I have in me is in my belly!” as we were Scot, not scotch of course. I’ll have a great fondness for Robert Burns because of the poems Gramps would recite for us. He left me with so much to be grateful for that I can’t thank him enough.
Grandpa has instilled so much in this little girl, I hope I can make him proud. And Grandpa, it just so happens that I’m taping a Suze Orman show right now to get my roomies to watch it for financial advice. I know you would love that.
posted by aquaticmoo @ 5:00 AM
3 Comments:
you can't read something like this and not be taken to your own experiences. isn't hard to balance joy and sadness in moments like these? i love your writing, mags.
I totally agree with you alecia. I sat here reading and was just crying and crying. I instantly was filling in "gramma" for each "grandpa". It's really amazing when you can totally relate to a certain topic, how emotional it becomes. Thanks for giving me a good cry Mags, I really needed it!
awww thanks roomies. I'm so lucky to have you both in my life. Bell, you know you want a blog... do it!
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