The Best Grandpa Ever

What My Daughter Said At My Dad's Funeral  

(I am very proud of her)

Hello and thank you for coming today.  I’m John’s granddaughter, Jamie.  Grandpa once challenged himself to join Toast Masters and told me that when people made errors in their speaking someone would drop a nail into an empty tin can.  If he were listening now I’m sure he’d have a handful of nails ready to go.  I hope you left yours at home, and I hope I can do him some credit.

My grandpa wasn’t a person who would typically be called a hero.  He didn’t have a red cape, wasn’t splashed across the front page of the newspapers for his most recent athletic feat, and never pulled a child out of a burning building. What my grandpa did accomplish, and what was just as important, if not more so, was to live an admirable life.  His example of how to live changed and inspired those who had the honor of knowing him.

I admire my grandpa’s kindness.  He was a genius at fixing things.  If it was broken, through some inconceivable mix of materials and methods of his own invention, he would fix it.  And this was one way his kindness was always clear—he loved fixing things for the people he cared about.   Grandpa was never one who wanted or expected anything in return—helping those he loved was his reward.  Too many times to count I remember Grandpa fixing our car, washing machine, toaster, and even building me a custom table to fix the problem of needing a place to put books at beanbag level.

To the end of his life, Grandpa’s kind spirit won over the hearts of those who knew him.  As he became less and less verbal, he would still wave to people he passed in the halls of the nursing home.  And he always had a special place for kids and anything with fur.  As a grandchild I know I’m a bit biased on this account, but children always caught Grandpa’s eye and made him smile, and he could pet a dog or cat for hours.  The love was mutual, too--kids and animals knew that this was a person who “got” them.

I admire my grandpa’s passion for knowledge.  Rarely have I met someone so dedicated to learning and understanding. He was interested in everything, and you never saw him far from a book.  Gathering information wasn’t enough for Grandpa though, he wanted to enrich the lives of others by sharing what he was reading with anyone who would listen. It was always comical when Grandma would try to serve dinner and the table would be covered with encyclopedias or whatever else Grandpa was discussing that particular day.  I know that Grandpa’s example helped nurture my own love of reading and learning.

I admire the depth of love and caring that Grandpa felt for his family and friends.  I can honestly report that my Grandpa was the best grandpa ever.  I know that Paul, Steven, and I will always treasure our memories of countless hours spent on his lap, doing yard work with him, getting tucked in at night, and hearing the stories that he loved to share.  The legacy he left behind in our parents and in us is a testament to the power of a loving family.

Perhaps most of all, I admire the way both of my grandparents truly lived their wedding vows every day of their lives. The devotion and love they had for each other through everything that sixty-one years of marriage can bring was boundless.  When I picture my grandparents, I see them holding hands, kissing hello, goodbye, and goodnight, and saying I love you.  Even when dementia had stolen all of his other memories, his love for my grandma endured. It had become an inextricable part of who he was to the very end.  And that ending proved to be a real-life happily ever after: before departing this life in his sleep, my grandpa’s last words were to say, “I love you” to my grandma.