I've just come in after paying a visit to my Grandad. He's the giant that brought my little brothers and me across fields to hunt for leprechauns. He's the one who taught us to climb trees and play conkers. He's the patriarch of a family comprising his 8 children, 2 step children, and 31 grandchildren - every one of which he spent every living minute with. He's the one his dozens of great grandchildren consider Grandad. He's the one who taught us all about growing vegetables and fruit trees long before there was a green movement, just because it was the good thing to do. He's the giant who's so small in that bed, the one the cancer's finishing off. Sorry - not a question really. Just a rage against a cruel world.
Folks, just wanted to thank you for your overwhelming support. I've taken a lot of what you've said and applied it, and will not allow his condition colour my memories.
Focus on the time you have had with your
Grandad ..and all the knowledge he has
passed on ..we are all in a chain ..
Sorry Whickerman ..will be thinking of
you ...x
Whickerman
Just wanted to add a few words.
That Man, who was a giant to you all, and who is so small in that bed, well, he is still that giant lying there. His humanity, love, and the Patriarch of your family, that is still Grandad lying there.
That is only a shell, it is what has been inside the man all the year. He has left you all with wonderful memories. What an Epitaph.
He will be proud. xxxx
We are all here for a short time, some of us will get to leave easily and some of us won't, it's the luck of the draw.
As to the point - well in the same way that a "human is just a gene's way of making another gene" a human is a good experiece's way of making another good experience.
I have similar memories of my dad. He was frail and weak, crying and scared, but we were all right beside him to the last. I often try and put the last visions of a frail and weakened frightened man dying a sad and painful death aside, and remember what a wonderful and happy man he was with my mother in raising me and my sisters the way we are with each other, our children and the people around us. He didn�t have a long life, but it was good while it lasted.
As said by so many, the point is that you take how and what he taught you and you pass it on .
Whickerman, there are no words, but my thoughts are with you, and they are full of compassion. Sounds like you shared the life of one of life's truly great people - you were touched by greatness, and some of that will have rubbed off onto you. Feel, in your anger and sorrow, that in many ways you are also very blessed - and your grandfather generated his own blessing in the form of all the lives he has impacted and made a difference to. This cancer may destroy the body, but the spirit of the man and the impact of his life on others, nothing can touch. He's still a giant! Take care xx