Conversations with My Dear, Dear Grandpa

Here's an example of one of those funny conversations that my grandpa and I have:

Grandpa: "I decided I'm not going to go to church tomorrow. It's just too much trouble."

He was referring to the fact that he has a fracture in his hip that is in the healing process. Having just seen him walk faster than he usually does because of the aid of a walker, I responded:

"Oh yeah, getting in and out of the car can be troublesome. We could take you to church tomorrow."

Grandpa: "No, it's just too much trouble."

Me: "I think you really just don't want to go because you don't want to have people asking what happened to you." (Who else besides his "favorite granddaughter" could get away with saying that?)

Granpda: "Yep."

Me: "I don't think that's a very good reason not to go to church."

Grandpa: "It's a perfectly good reason!"

I don't think I responded at this point, but I did think, "If that was a perfectly good reason, there would be a lot of times in your life when you wouldn't go."

Grandpa makes me laugh. Here's an example from a few weeks ago:

Grandpa: "You'd make a great nurse."

Me: "No way! I'd hate to be a nurse."

Grandpa: "Then don't be a nurse!"

Me: "Okay, I won't!"

Grandpa and I are a lot alike. I think there are many reasons that I have gotten closer to him in the past couple of years. One might be that I realized when Grandma died that Grandpa would eventually, too, and I should get to know him better by serving him. Another might be that I see a lot of similarities between Grandpa and I. I feel like I am a blunt, sometimes bossy penny pincher like he is, and I've gotten in trouble for it. However, I see that he has gotten in trouble for it in his life and he has found ways to improve. It intrigues me when I see the wonderful changes in him. He used to seem distant and grumpy and bossy, but he lightened up and learned to really love people when Grandma was fighting cancer. Why not learn earlier in life by seeing someone who already has gone through it? I sure love Grandpa and I hope he'll be around when I get back from Germany. He says he will. I'm going to miss him so much. It's interesting how serving someone can make you love them so much. It goes to show that people don't need to do things to earn your love. You need to do things for them to love them.