Life minus one.

When I heard that he had refused to be hospitalized, I thought of our house getting t.p.’ed when I was in high school.  Always a fear to see white after being gone for a week.  And sure enough, there were the streamers in the tops of the trees, we could see them from the school down the street.  And then we pulled into the driveway and I saw my grandfather in the late afternoon light on an extension ladder cleaning the trees.And that is when I realized that the streams were only in the tops of the trees.  And then my eyes took in the white ball in the yard, it was probably about as big as a car, I don’t know how long it would take someone to pick up all of those pieces.  And the next day at school everyone was loving it but they didn’t know he had saved me all of that humiliation of having to clean it up, not even saved it from me, it never even touched me.And now we are getting the pictures together, the pictures of our whole lives with him, and I am looking in my oldest photo albums and going back to the beginning and remembering when he was so proud of me for silly things and I always wanted to be good in his eyes, so now I guess I go on and keep trying to do that without him, and this is the beginning of that time.  And I remember the good times, thanks for calling, babe, all of the little and big ways that he saved me.

Gaga “Joe” Rahn, 1922-2012