My Grandfather’s Selfless Gift Of Love

Cherubic looking, my grandfather had a round face that was quick to reveal his kindness and empathy. He was just as fast to tell a joke, which he frequently did.

His tummy always shook when he laughed out loud… like Santa Claus. He was a little, round Irish man that doted on me when I was deeply in need of this level of parental love and nurturing.

It’s not too bad a story, as stories go. I was simply born to a couple of kids. My mother and father were naive country folk, and very young. Much too young to be responsible parents.

I think that children back then, especially at those tender ages, were even younger than their years, as compared to today’s worldly young people on TikTok. The world was a little more naive then, compared to today.

Anyway, when I was a baby, my parents left me with my grandfather, for him to raise me. From what I know this arrangement was not forced on him, he volunteered.

He passed away when I was 23 years old, and he was only 62.famil

Granddaddy didn’t want to go, and I had experienced so little loss in life at that age that, even as I watched him slowly slip away, I wasn’t quite understanding the process. I realize now that I simply couldn’t imagine my life without him. My grandfather and I were togetherness personified. I was his hero and he was mine.

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