A special day

L-R Grandpa, Mildred (sister) and Henry (brother)

Today my grandpa would have turned 86. My dad's dad was an incredibly Godly man with a great sense of humor. My grandpa was the oldest of nine ten (oops! I miscounted - sorry!) :) children. He grew up in the Depression and went to war in the Pacific in World War II.

After his return, he met my grandmother at the local drug store where she worked and they were married not long after. They have three children - my Uncle Bill, my Dad and my Aunt Teresa - four grandchildren and two great-grands.  We lost him in 1996 at the age of 71 to diabetes.  He had asked God for 70 years, and God gave him a little extra time. It hardly seems possible he's been gone almost 15 years!

I have many fond memories of my Grandpa: of him cooking hot tamales (family tradition) and many other yummy things - he was the cook of the family, his joke telling, his special little song he sang just for me (usually first thing in the morning... and I wasn't entirely awake and ready for music yet!) :) I remember how he always had some kind of animal around, usually dogs even though he said he didn't really like dogs. He gave us our very special pet, Scamp, one of his dog's, Suzie, puppies. I remember how he loved to egg my grandma on and called her "Gertie." (Growing up in my family, we know how much we are loved by the amount of teasing we get!)

One of his favorite films was "Sound of Music." He loved the song "Edelweiss." So in memory of him, I wanted to share this version of the song sung by Julie Andrews and John Denver.



Oh... and I've heard it said that in his younger years, Grandpa looked like Desi Arnaz. What do you think? :)