18 June 2008

Grandpa

Quite a bit has happened since my last post, but the most profound was the death of my grandpa on May 25. I'd just like to take a few minutes to share his impact on my life.

I was really lucky to grow up in the same community as my grandpa. There can be two sides to the part of small-town life where everybody knows you and your family - it can be stifling for some, but for me it's made me feel more connected. I feel like my roots run deep here, and I love that. My grandpa was influential on many levels - in government, education (the local school district as well as Cornell), agriculture - the list goes on. His greatest influence, however, was his way of drawing people in.

Grandpa knew how to make everybody he met feel special. He'd ask about their lives, their families, what they were concerned about, what they'd accomplished - and somehow he would remember a large percentage of that information. He knew what was on people's minds, and he had a way of making connections and getting things done.

I'm constantly running into people who knew him in some capacity, and the response is always positive, even reverent. I'm extraordinarily proud to be one of his grandchildren, and I'm equally glad that my relationship to him is as a grandchild. It's easy enough to learn about what the man did in his public life, but only his grandchildren got to go fishing with him, or for a walk around the "block", or got to ride in that bright turquoise pickup with vinyl seats that got really really hot and sticky in the summer, or had him watching from the sidelines at the county fair each summer, always with a proud smile on his face. I'll miss him.

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