Dear Lyla,
Sometimes when someone has been gone from your life for a long time it is hard to remember their face quite accurately, or recall the sound of their voice. Instead your memory of the individual may be composed of isolated incidents recalled for a brief instant or perhaps a touch, taste or smell. This is the case with the memory of my Great Grandpa Guy. Grandpa Guy was married to my Great Grandma Susie and is the only grandpa that I remember from my daddy’s side of the family. My Grandma Susie’s first husband, Eric, died before I was born and Guy and grandma married later in life. Grandpa Guy and his first wife Laura never had any children; when he married grandma he had an instant family complete with lots of great grandchildren. Grandpa and grandma had a cabin just a hop and a skip down the lake front from the resort I grew up on; Patti and I would get so excited when they would arrive for the season. We were always welcome at the cabin where Grandma Susie would take us out to her little garden to pick vegetables for lunch and then we would wait until grandpa came in from fishing so we could all eat together. My memory of Grandpa Guy is a bit fuzzy but there are a few things about grandpa that I remember vividly. Grandpa was very tall, so much so that I used to think that maybe he and Abraham Lincoln were related. Grandpa also had a great laugh. What made it so great was that grandpa always had a rather stern expression on his face, not because he had a gruff personality but because his face was just naturally severe in its structure, and when he laughed his whole face transformed before one’s eyes. Perhaps the thing I remember most about grandpa was the treats he always kept in his pockets for us (butterscotch buttons and pink peppermint rounds). You see, by the time he married grandma her grandchildren were already grown up so we were his first foray into interacting with people 65 years younger than he was. I think he fell into grand parenthood like a fish to water. He figured out that by offering sweets for us to nibble on that he would be the grandparent that the little ones would flock to; he would leave any disciplining that needed to be done to Grandma Susie. If grandpa got tired of us he would simply walk down to the water and get into his boat to go fishing. How lucky we all were to have grandpa in our lives; we were not his grandchildren by blood but we certainly were by choice. He was an example of goodness and patience for a brood of children who were born with a propensity to talk one’s ear off (it’s in our DNA honey, no escaping it!). Grandpa Guy went to heaven when I was ten years old; I remember that day like it was yesterday. There would be no more good-natured teasing, no more lessons on how to cast my fishing pole and no one waiting at the cabin door to share treats. We grieved for our grandpa who was not an educated man in a formal sense, but was a great teacher to my cousins and me. Although grandpa is no longer with us in body, he is certainly alive forever in my heart and has made an indelible impression on my character. Grandpa lives on is some of the phrases that have made their way into my everyday manner of speech and the lessons he taught us when we were young are the same ones I will pass on to you. I think grandpa would have enjoyed you a great deal little one; you would have kept him on his toes and he would have reveled in giving you more sweets than are good for you. You are a lot like him in many ways; kind, caring and mischievous to name a few. What you must know little one is that Grandpa Guy is an important part of your family history and I thought it was time you two met.
Letters To Lyla 