Estoy Nueces

Happy Valentine's Day! Hope yours was romantic and sweet. We had all the usual gifts, cards and flowers, Mark is forever sweet, but it was a sad day for us. Mark's grandfather died early this morning.

The death was not a suprise to us. Granddad has been sick for about six months and has slowly letting go of this earth. Yesterday we were in Dallas and got the call that he was rapidly leaving us. We went to Tyler and spent the day with him and the family and were able to talk to him and let him know we loved him and will miss him. He was mostly immobile but could open his eyes and make some sounds so we know he could hear us and knew what we were saying. We left in the evening and came back to Austin.

We got the call this morning that he passed away at 5 a.m. We're glad he doesn't have to suffer anymore. This is going to be hardest on Grandmother. They would have celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary on March 15. They were truly in love for a long time. I give them the credit for Mark's ideas of what a man should do for his wife and how a marriage should be. Mark's parents divorced when he was 18 and their marriage wasn't a great example to him but his grandparents knew how to love.

Granddad loved me a lot. I'm so glad he got to see Mark finally happy in a good marriage. Mark had had some rotten luck with women before and I'm glad Granddad knew that I was different.

The time we will miss Granddad the most is at Thanksgiving. The first week I met Mark (in June) he asked me to join him for his family's Thanksgiving at his grandparent's house. Before we married he made me promise that we would spend each Thanksgiving at their house until they couldn't do it anymore. Amazingly, into their 90s, the grandparents have had a huge meal of turkey, dressing, homemade rolls, pies and all the trimmings each year. We've been to every one and enjoyed all the family and friends that join us each year. One wonderful year all of my family came with us for Thanksgiving. It was so great to spend Thanksgiving with my family and see them all together. Last year, Granddad and Grandmother had moved to assisted living but we still had Thanksgiving at their house and they came, but an aunt cooked the meal. It was sad because we knew it would probably be our last Thanksgiving with both of the grandparents.

Tomorrow we will go to Tyler for the funeral home visitation and then Wednesday on to Mount Pleasant, Texas, to see Granddad put to rest with his three brothers that are already there, his parents and all of his grandparents and countless cousins, aunts and uncles. It is a nice final resting place. It is where I will be someday. Each May we have Decoration Day there and will be able to laugh and cry with the relatives over our memories over Granddad.

I'll have more about the weekend and Valentine's later, but I wanted to get my feeling about Granddad down some. I knew him only eight years but I learned a lot from him. His influence and his wisdom will be missed.