This morning my father called and told me that grandfather passed away at home. As I became an adult and moved even further away for my career, I only see my immediate family a couple to three times a year and my grandparents have been getting the really short end of the stick with rare visits at increasingly longer intervals.
But, I have very vivid memories of trips to my grandparents' house. I watched MTV for the very first time there, got to eat alot of popsicles, wear my grandmother's knee high moccasins and listen to my grandfather's Johnny Cash albums. My grandparents were hilarious and they always teased each other mercilessly. They gave each other a really hard time to the degree that you would think they didn't like each other very much but they were inseparable. They were always together. I worry for my grandmother now. She lost her companion of 50 years and even though the last several years have been difficult for her in caring for him, I know she will miss him deep down in her bones. I hate that I'm not there to hold her hand even though she will be cracking jokes. I know she will cry in those silent moments when all the kids, grandkids and great-grandkids have gone home and she's all alone in an empty house.
