This was our last weekend before Rachel’s return to work and we wanted to spend it as a family somewhere warmer than upstate NY in January. So we took a short trip down to Sarasota, Florida to the home of Eli’s late great-grandparents on my mother’s side of the family.
Every morning we took the same 3 mile walk my grandparents used to take for years together. We visited our Aunt Irene, and introduced Eli to his great-grandfather’s 100 year old friend Johnny Pipers. At my grandfather’s funeral, it was Johnny Pipers that brought the tears out when he whispered, “I lost my best friend.” We were invited to a happy hour with my grandparents’ old friends from the community. The universal topic of conversation from those friends was that of the devotion and love between my grandparents. And as if to reinforce the topic, I found a huge box of letters that my grandmother kept in her closet. The box held love letters and poems that my grandfather had written to her for over 60 years.
Eli- If this blog is still up and running by the time you can read and understand what I’ve written, know that on this weekend in 2010, you visited the home of two people I miss very much. Two people that I really wish you could have known, and would have loved to meet you. Now I hope your mother and I can be even close to the model of love and friendship that these two were.
Oh…the picture. Yeah, that was your mom’s idea.
4 comments
Comments feed for this article
January 18, 2010 at 3:28 pm
Harry
How pleased Nana would be and I can see her smile and nod that approves all that you are trying to do. Grandpa would already be lecturing Eli on history and the downfall of western civilization because of the Beatles!
January 18, 2010 at 3:40 pm
Karin Ash
Ethan, your grandmother would be glowing if she read your latest entry. She would be bursting with pride and love for you. Your grandfather might share those feelings, but he would repress them because “you don’t make a show of emotions” and instead would ask “Now why is it called a ‘blog’–it SHOULD (his often expressed verb) be called ….”. I can accurately hear him knock the term , but cannot imagine his preferred word choice.
I’m so glad the three of you selected their home as your first”vacation” destination. If only your grandparents could have been there to greet you.
January 18, 2010 at 4:41 pm
Genna
Tears! So glad you three enjoyed your trip. Wish I could have been at that happy hour–how fun!
January 19, 2010 at 6:32 pm
Aunt Linny
Oh, E, your words brought tears to my eyes. Nana would have loved to hold Eli, and Grandpa would have taught him how to blow the exhaust fan on and off. They were lucky to have such a loving grandson. And I am lucky to have such a caring nephew and niece.