For Grandpa
I’m thinking a lot about my Grandpa lately. Sunday was Father’s Day and as I looked up at the violin sculpture on my wall that morning I couldn’t help but think about how much I miss him. Today, however, my sister and I are going to get tattoos to celebrate his life and what he meant to us. Ever the nature lover, my grandfather taught us all about the outdoors, but he had a special place in his heart for maple seeds that he spun into helicopters and stuck to our noses and called us Pinocchio. He even made a sculpture of my sister with one on her nose. It is for this reason that we are both getting maple seeds made into artwork and he will live forever on a little piece of us.
Four years ago we had a memorial service to celebrate his life (rather than mourn his death). It was a really great memorial and I wrote a speech that I still think brings him to life in the best way I know how. I found the rough draft of it, and while I forget exactly what I changed for the final, I still think it’s perfect:
_____________________________________________________________
I feel extremely fortunate. I was able to spend nearly 23 years being entertained and educated by a man of quiet greatness and genius. A man who left his mark on everyone he met (so much so that we’re at standing room only in here).
My time with Professor Grandpa started with songs about rainbows and stories about trips to the moon. Then it was how to sculpt an entire circus out of pipe cleaners and science experiments by Tommy’s Pond. He then taught me how to make an armature so that my clay sculptures had a skeleton and there was a great day of throwing clay down the stairs to learn how gravity worked (just don’t tell Grandma!). Next it was making plaster casts out of our hands and trips to the museum where I learned much more than was ever written on the placards. Later it was talks of science and psychology, physics and the paranormal, constellations and Pablo Picasso.
My Grandpa wasn’t like everyone else’s Grandpa. He wasn’t old. He didn’t sit around and watch TV all day. He had a sculpture studio in his garage and fishing poles ready and waiting to go. He went on trips to foreign countries and knew all about dinosaur bones and fossils. My Grandpa was cool.
If you walked into Grandpa’s garage, faces and hands of his family and closest friends surrounded you. Sure they were stone, clay, and plaster, but they were full of life. They were full of life because they were full of Grandpa. We would sit in that garage and eat pretzel rods while Grandpa would show me his latest project. He would explain all the tools and what he was doing and let me smush his clay for him while he worked to keep it soft. On my lucky days, he’d let me make the ball of clay that would become uncle Neil’s eye ball or push in the nostril on Aunt Linda’s head. He always made sure I had an important job to help him with. I still look into his garage with wonder. He fascinated me, he still does, and I know he always will.
Grandpa opened up worlds to me. I can trace so many of my current fascinations to my Grandfather. There were always new books in the library and I used to run my hands across all those leather spines and hope that some day, I could have a library like Grandpa’s and I could be big and smart enough to read books like he did. He was always so curious about the world around him and he never stopped reading and absorbing new information. I believe his most important lesson to me was to never, ever stop learning.
I’m sure most of you know of Grandpa’s nose game. A quick refresher to anyone who doesn’t: First you take your trusty nose pusher [show everyone a pointed finger and demonstrate], then you push your nose to stick out your tongue, pull your right ear to make your tongue go right, then your left ear to send it left, and then pull your chin to suck it in. Now if everyone could please pull out their trusty nose pusher. Let’s remember my Grandpa the way he’d want to be remembered… with love in our hearts, curiosity in our minds, and a smile on our faces… [lead everyone in Grandpa’s nose game]
