For My Grandpa

I am sure it is one of those moments that you think is sad and hard to absorb.  The passing of my Grandpa is not something that I can simply put on a shelf and say yes it is oneway or the other.  It is really a big mix of emotions.  He lived 96 plus years.  I think if we reach that time in our lives we should be happy to have the facilities he had.  It was not a slow degrading hill, it was a quick and steep hill that brought him to the end.  For that I am glad, no major drama.  I also hope no major suffering for him.  It is hard to say what that mind set is like.  Knowing at some point you stop trying to fight and decide that life is better left behind.  I truly see he made that decision for himself.  That is in my mind what my grandpa stood for.  He was very sharp and very aware right to the end of the line.  I know he tried to fight to get back out of the hospital and back to the lodge, I think in some respects that was his goal.  But I think he also saw at the end it was not a fight he would win and that was when the light dimmed.

I recall a lot of moments spent with my grandpa and to be honest there were never any bad experiences.  We fished, oh yes if you knew him you would learn to fish.  I know there is a probably going to be an increase in the fish population over the next few years with Grandpa gone.  I say that jokingly but it is probably true.

I also recall just hanging out in the cold spring weather when I was out of university and waiting for my summer job.  We went fishing but it was a simple understanding that it was early and probably not the best time.  In reality it was a great time.  I had time to chat to unwind and to talk to a person that could make you laugh and smile.

I think back to younger years when I remember my grandfather taking us into the back yard in Winnipeg to sit and look up at the stars.  We would watch for satellites cruising the sky.  Oh yes and the worm farm for fishing.  He aways had a worm farm going, you needed good worms for fishing.

I know over the years I spoke to him less and saw him less but I would always know he was there.  He stopped in all the times that he was coming around or through.  He never missed that opportunity. I was thinking about how my kids had a chance to meet him and be with him, many times.  It was all that more important to me the last time I went fishing with him, my kids went with us.

So for the sadness we feel at loosing grandpa, I feel the joy he shared with me and my family.  He was a person that simply said yes lets try or lets do it.  There never was a can't or won't in his words.  He lived.  He had adventures, many of them with many people over the years.  He was not one to sit idle and let time slip through his fingers.  Those same fingers that tested the strength of cables at the Canadian wire plant.  I still see him touring me through work, and showing me how he could snap a wire with his fingers.  I was amazed then and remain so now.

But what I remember and what I take from his life is that you need to do it, you need to live, you need to just get the can't and won't out of the way and do.  If you can do that you are free and you will live a full life with adventures.  There are many more thought in my head I would love to reflect on here, but I think they will remain mine for now.  I want to hold them a little longer and smile and laugh as I remember them.

So Grandpa to you my man, may there be a jerk on that line, a fight in the fish, sunshine on your face and warmth in your smile.  Thank you for touching my life with memories a plenty and we will miss having you with us.  Safe travels.


Joe Fischer - story teller, fisherman, musician, outdoors man, husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather, cook, gardener, craftsman, can do anything as far as I know.

Cheers Grandpa