I chose today to continue the tribute to my grandpa with another photo :-) As the oldest of the grandchildren, my sister and I got to spend the most time with Grandma and Grandpa before they fell into bad health--something I'm profoundly grateful for. I have years upon years of great memories with them. Trips to the zoo, the movies, Show Biz Pizza, the mall, the pool.....everywhere a kid would ever want to go!

Grandma taught me how to knit when I was about 6 years old. She helped teach me to swim.

And Grandpa taught me a lot too, something I realized even more after he had passed. He was a loving and gentle man with a certain touch of stoicism. It's not that he was ever afraid to cry, but more that he preferred to look at the happy parts of any situation. He had a gift for remembering people and all kinds of details about their lives--who they were married to, the names of their kids, their most recent golf score. I suppose it came from his work as a lobbyist....or perhaps he had that job because of his ability to connect with people.

One summer when my sister and I were visiting, Grandpa sat us down at the kitchen table and handed us each a large manila envelope. Inside were some stamps and several pages of a stamp collecting kit. He showed us how to affix the stamps to the pages, and how to patiently soak stamps off of envelopes to expand our collection. After that, every time we went to Grandma and Grandpa's, he would give us each some stamps he had set aside and we would spend at least the better part of one day doing nothing but fiddling with our collections. As we grew older, it slowed a bit. I think he tried to give the same experience to the other grandchildren, but I don't know that anyone else really had the same interest in it.

So, when he passed away and I was asked what I might like to remember him by, it took me less than 5 seconds to reply. The stamps. They somehow categorize the time I spent with him. He also collected coins--more than stamps actually....but to me, the stamps were more representative. One of my cousins took a small portion of the collection, and the rest came home with me.

It may sound dorky :-) Not too many 25 year olds have stamp collections in this day and age!! lol But I absolutely treasure them. Still working on trying to get them all cataloged and organized....but I'll finish some day. And then I'll be able to pull them out and show my children. And tell them how wonderful it was to spend time with my Grandfather, share stories about him, and tell them what kind of a man he was. Who knows? Maybe they'll like it :-)