The long wait is over

My wife's grandfather, "Poppy" died today at 5:30 AM.

We went rather peacefully. He was having trouble breathing and his girlfriend told him it was OK to go and he didn't have to fight any more. With that, he drew his last breath.

I was on my way in to work at Zero Dark Early this morning and my phone rang. I figured it was my wife, which would have been unusual but not unheard of. When I looked at the caller ID and saw it was my in-laws, I knew immediately.

"He's gone."

"I figured."

We talked about arrangements and logistics and such and I drove to work in silence. Music seemed inappropriate and all sounded flat.

My kids asked Mommy why she was crying and she explained that Poppy was with God now. They seemed to think this was good news as it meant that Poppy wasn't sick any more.

My son said, "God came down to get Poppy to take him up to heaven but they're going to fly around for a while to look at some things first." I liked that idea.

The hardest question to answer is "When is Poppy coming back?". When I explained that he isn't they didn't quite understand. I have a feeling that will come up again in the future but for now, they seemed to accept that they didn't understand and it wasn't worth dwelling on.

He was a WWII vet who fought in the Pacific Theater. He wouldn't say much about it except to say that the Japanese were "a bunch of bastards". An indelible prejudice he held until his last days.

He died 39 years to the day after his father. He will be interned next to his wife, daughter and parents.

Godspeed Giovanni

Comments

Anna Venger said…
I'm sorry.
Anonymous said…
My sincerest condolences, Duff.

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