Thanks GrandPa!

I don't mean to start this week's postings with "remembrances" but hey, in my young life after losing two close friends in their prime; I've come (and still try) to understand death is a part of life and sometimes reminds us to put things in perspective. So it is last week when I lost my last surviving GrandParent - my Dad's father.

To tell you the truth, I really didn't want to blog about anything this week not just because of my time-consuming work, but I was also fighting a virus (which might spell flu), and I just wanted to be with my family or alone with my thoughts.

Then I thought to myself, part of what makes life with all its winding road worth living is to just keep moving because it definitely goes on. So after getting the news late one evening (at the office), I had a ten-minute diversion to gather my thoughts. Found a way to still work another two hours and drove home. I've got on a few loved ones nerves about my keen sense of focus. Do I grieve? Yes! I know how to literally shut down and UNPLUG when I need to. I know what it means to have the wind knocked out of you and I know what it means to have my faith shaken and perhaps, stirred.

But one thing I know how to do better than most is to rise up again. I've never taken anti-depressants, don't drink to numb my pain or to gain any pleasure. I just choose to be even-keeled. So it is with this man I just lost. I hope I live long and vibrant as he did. The last time I saw him, he was as fit as men 20 years his junior, standing upright as he walked from the farm and a day of hunting.

The word in my family and apparent to the eye: my siblings and I definitely got our height and built from him. I'm one of the shortest (according to inches) in the group. But I'm taller than the average American woman. It shows with the amount of time I spend finding pants to fit my legs - let's just say I always look for "long" version. He never tried to impress anyone (sounds like a girl I know very well) but just lived by the value of hardwork for its own sake and being content with whatever possession he has. That alone is worth leaving as a legacy.