What I'm saying is this: there are only three people in my immediate family that have ever been super supportive of my art (Don't get me wrong, everyone's supportive of it.) But never did more people show it off than him and my parents. I don't know what I'd have done without his support and their continuing support. It's because of them that my skill has developed into what it is today, and why I've chosen to major in Studio Art in college. I only wish he'd lived long enough to see me graduate from high school. Oh, I know he'll still see it, just from above, where I can't hug him until the day I go to be with all my family and friends there.
My grandpa, or Grumpy, as we called him (something my cousin started even though he was never actually grumpy) was certainly one of a kind. Don't picture a little frail old man, because he wasn't. He was 6 foot tall, and he used to be over 200 pounds. Towards the end of his life, he'd lost about a hundred, because he never wanted to eat anything; nothing sounded good to him. I never realized how drastic the change was until I saw some old pictures of him. But you know the standard "back in my day," stories? He had those. And almost every time we were at his house, he'd ask if we'd seen Lonesome Dove, and almost every time, Shawshank Redemption would be on, and we'd watch it. Well, as much as a person who constantly falls asleep can watch it, anyway.
I'm not gonna sugarcoat anything for you. My grandpa wasn't like that, so I won't represent him like he was. He was one of the most real people I've ever met. He'd do anything for anyone, even if it ended up coming back to bite him. Maybe that's why my mom and I are the same way. When my mom was little, my grandpa worked a lot, so she was home with her brother and mom. When my mom was 16, her mom was murdered. Some time after that, she and my grandpa became so much closer. They'd talk on the phone almost every single night, and would always end by saying 'love you.'
My mom is a musician,, singer, and songwriter on top of being a social worker and therapist. So in honor of him, she's going to write a song (with my help) called, "Daddy's Calls." Since he will never get to hear her finished CD, and everything she worked on for it, she has even more incentive to finish it. Since he never got to see my drawing, it was on display at his funeral. Since we're doing the headstone pretty soon, I was wanting to look into getting the picture engraved onto it.
Sorry that I keep jumping back and forth; I'm just typing what comes to me at the time.
I was his youngest grandchild. By birth anyway. My cousin is with a woman who has twin 6 year olds, a 13 year old, and a baby with him, so Grumpy had another set of grandchildren - well, they'd be his great-grandchildren actually. But as I was saying, I was/am the youngest, and I think the closest to him. So sometime (hopefully) soon, I'm getting a tattoo in honor of him. It's going to be in his handwriting from the last birthday card from him, which wasn't long before he died. He signed it as : "Love you
Grump"
So it's going to be on my side by my heart, to always have him close to it. I don't think I'll put everything he wrote on me, because it was this: "to the best granddaughter a grandfather could have," and that would be too much. But that card, and that sentiment pretty much describes our relationship. I'm trying so hard this very second not to burst into tears, knowing he'll never see my Senior pictures, see me graduate, do well in college, or get married. But I know he'll still get to experience it, and he'll be with me every step of the way. And I'll always hold him in my heart.
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